[hash872]

Manufacturing jobs were leaving the US in the millions pre-NAFTA and China joining the WTO. Even with high tariffs & restrictionist immigration policies, it can't change the fact that someone in a 3rd world country can do x semi-skilled labor for $2 an hour whereas a unionized American does it for $30+. You can't pass a law against cheaper.

Even with the highest tariffs in the world, manufacturers would still have left for cheaper labor elsewhere in a globalized world. Economic reality is not a choice

[chiefalchemist]

The cheap labor is part of the equation. Less environmental restrictions also contributed significantly to cheap goods. But the final blow is the low cost of shipping / transportation.

There has always been differences in markets. It's the low cost (and ease) of shipping / transportation that changed everything.

[pytester]

>You can't pass a law against cheaper.

Tariffs, especially combined with the usually underestimated coordination expense of managing supply chains across continents, can make cheaper not cheaper.

>Economic reality is not a choice

It is completely a choice. Unfettered trade, globalism and the Washington Consensus were all choices.