[FirmwareBurner]

>US and European political leadership who made manufacturing unaffordable domestically.

Manufacturing consumer goods in the west was never unaffordable, just that insane corporates profits weren't possible while keeping manufacturing in the west, as they were in China.

A lot of consumer electronics were made in the west before the mass exodus to China. Nokia phones was made in Finland and Germany, Siemens phones were made in Germany, Ericsson phones were made in Sweden, etc.

It was all possible and they also didn't cost an rm and a leg, but companies saw the allure of ultracheap labor and loose environmental regulations in China to jack up their profits.

[User23]

Right. And governments failed to establish public policies to make that unattractive when they certainly could have.

[FirmwareBurner]

Exactly. Tariffs on Chinese made goods would have prevented this but everyone saw only shareholder value increasing opportunities so it was decided to offshore all electronics manufacturing.