While tangential, it should be noted that creating jobs in Mexico and Canada will probably always be a net good for the US even if it means some net loss of jobs in the near term. Being closely connected with populous neighbors whom you can enrich such that they can buy your stuff will vastly strengthen the US's position as well as the NA bloc. We want manufacturing in mexico because we're connected by literal rail lines and can ship products back and forth far more readily and in an environmentally friendly way. Further we have mutual interests in terms of policy and defense.
This may sound controversial but it's likely the only way forward for the US to compete with China long term. Trying to ostracize our neighbors and go it alone against a country 4x our size is not a geopolitically sound move.
> While tangential, it should be noted that creating jobs in Mexico and Canada will probably always be a net good for the US even if it means some net loss of jobs in the near term.
Yeah the rust belt job loss is only temporary. They will come back any day now.
> We want manufacturing in mexico because we're connected by literal rail lines and can ship products back and forth far more readily and in an environmentally friendly way.
Yeah I'm sure those Mexico factories have all the environmental regulations that US/Canada does.
> This may sound controversial but it's likely the only way forward for the US to compete with China long term.
The US has given China it's growth. It has exported jobs and exported it's middle class along with it. It has also exported much of it's high tech advantage into China. All for the short term benefit of the investor class and it's billionaires. Competing with China could start by not giving away every advantage.
> Trying to ostracize our neighbors and go it alone against a country 4x our size is not a geopolitically sound move.
The only ostracizing I do is towards the billionaires who shape economic policy to their benefit and everyone else's expense.
I think this kinda bends the meaning of the argument a bit.
To put it differently, if we have to go with outsourcing, China was a mistake and we should redirect as much of what was offshored as possible to Mexico.
Obviously the billionaire class needs to pay for what has been done. I'm absolutely not against that.
This may sound controversial but it's likely the only way forward for the US to compete with China long term. Trying to ostracize our neighbors and go it alone against a country 4x our size is not a geopolitically sound move.