They tried Made in the USA – it was too expensive for their customers

Price, Quality, and What Consumers Actually Buy

• Many comments say consumers overwhelmingly prioritize low prices over origin, even when they claim to care about “Made in USA.”
• Some argue Chinese goods are often as good or better than US-made at a fraction of the cost; others report the opposite, but agree price dominates.
• “Premium” US-made lines often fail because the performance gap vs. imports is small while the price gap is huge.
• Fast fashion is used as a case study: clothing was mostly US-made in the 1980s without an impoverished lifestyle; today people have more, cheaper, lower‑quality clothes and throw them away faster.

Feasibility of Domestic Production

• A recurring theme: the US can make almost anything, but not everything, and not at current global price points.
• Core constraints cited: higher labor and benefit costs, OSHA and environmental compliance, litigation risk, permitting delays, and loss of supply-chain depth and “industrial muscle memory.”
• Textiles and sewn goods are highlighted as especially hard to automate; sewing remains labor‑intensive, so production follows cheap labor.
• Some suggest partial reshoring and mixed product lines (standard made abroad, premium domestic) as a realistic compromise.

Labor, Jobs, and Working Conditions

• Several threads debate whether bringing back low‑skill factory work is even desirable: it’s repetitive, physically damaging, and historically polluting.
• Others counter that not everyone can do high‑skill work; societies still need large numbers of decent, stable blue‑collar jobs.
• There’s disagreement over whether US workers are “lazy” or simply rationally avoiding dangerous, low‑status jobs that don’t support housing, healthcare, and family life.

China, Globalization, and Ethics

• China’s advantage is framed less as “cheap labor only” and more as: integrated supply chains, rapid scaling, state-backed capital, and manufacturing know‑how.
• Some emphasize ethical and security concerns: forced labor, environmental shortcuts, support for adversarial regimes, and vulnerability of over‑concentrated supply chains.
• Others respond that US history and current practices are far from clean, and consumers gladly arbitrage these abuses when it lowers prices.

Tariffs, Retail, and Who Bears the Cost

• The new tariffs are widely described as a blunt, regressive tax. Retail margins (e.g., Walmart) are too thin to absorb big cost increases, so prices will rise.
• Many expect small brands, especially in discretionary niches (dog beds, specialty beverages), to be squeezed between higher input costs and retailers unwilling to take price hikes.
• Commenters argue that serious reshoring would require long‑term industrial policy and targeted subsidies, not just tariffs and slogans about “Made in USA.”

Product Examples, IP, and Platforms

• The SmarterEveryday grill brush is cited as a detailed look at how hard and expensive domestic manufacturing has become; reactions range from admiration to “it’s just not worth $80.”
• Safety concerns around grill‑brush bristles show how minor risk differences can justify premium designs for some buyers but not for others.
• Multiple commenters say they abandoned plans to manufacture domestically because Amazon and similar platforms allow rapid, ultra‑cheap knockoffs, and small firms cannot afford to enforce patents.
• Patents themselves are hotly debated: some see them as necessary innovation protection; others see them as mostly anti‑competitive and poorly administered.

Class, Culture, and Skills

• Several comments link offshoring to hollowed‑out communities and personal stories of “class mobility” that left people socially stranded between blue‑ and white‑collar worlds.
• There is concern about the loss of shop classes and hands‑on skills, and debate over whether games and abstractions (e.g., “Factorio”) meaningfully substitute for real manufacturing exposure.
• Underneath the economics, many see a cultural shift: from pride in making durable things locally toward a model where identity and value are increasingly produced by software, media, and finance rather than physical goods.