Trading the integrity of military supply chain and infrastructure development for little hedonistic comfort is what'd I'd expect from end-stage liberalism. Just call it what it is, surrendering.
Except nobody did that. Defense manufacturing and procurement is still heavily based in the US and the West. Consumer goods manufacturing, not so much.
> "Hickey told a story of how the United States is even losing its submarine fleet. He had a conversation with an admiral in charge of the U.S. sub fleet at the commissioning of the USS Illinois, a Virginia-class attack submarine, who complained that the United States was retiring three worn-out boats a year, but could only build one and a half in that time. The Trump military budget has boosted funding to build two a year, but the United States no longer has the capacity to do high quality castings to build any more than that. The supply chain that could support such surge production should be in the commercial world, but it has been offshored to China."
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/americas-mo...
I completely agree with you that America's manufacturing is in a deplorable state. My original comment was just pointing out that the intention in opening up China was for mutual benefit rather than exploitation, even though China's ability to undercut us in manufacturing has ravaged us.