
Made in America, Again - prostoalex
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/10/made-in-america-again/379343/?single_page=true
======
Animats
Exporting manufacturing jobs is only cost-effective if the labor is about 4x
cheaper. The coastal provinces of China are now at that level relative to the
US. Manufacturing is mostly capital cost; labor cost isn't that big a fraction
of product cost. Offshoring adds costs; air freight is expensive, sea freight
takes forever, and long-distance less-than-container-load land shipping within
China works surprisingly badly. Coordination is worse, and quality control is
hard.

------
kijin
> _New middle-class jobs might not be an oxymoron after all ... I have seen
> $17–$20 starting hourly wages at new factories in Mississippi and South
> Carolina._

That's $40K per year at best. Hardly a middle-class salary in contemporary
United States. In fact, it's barely above minimum wages in many other
countries.

~~~
sliverstorm
_That 's $40K per year at best. Hardly a middle-class salary in contemporary
United States_

\- There's a huge range to "middle-class". Consider whether your idea of
"middle-class salaries" is in fact upper-middle-class. Remember that most of
the middle class cannot afford to drive Priuses and BMWs.

\- In a lot of the United States, cost of living is a hell of a lot lower than
the Bay. When your rent is $350/month for a two-bedroom flat and your car cost
$5k, $40k might not be so bad after all.

\- The figure quoted is starting wage. It goes up from there, and twenty-year-
olds don't yet need quite as much to live comfortably as they will later.

~~~
maxsilver
Where is rent $350/month?

I live in the heart of the "cheap, low cost" Midwest and there is nothing
within 200 miles of me that rents below $650/month -- and even at $650, your
talking about old, poorly maintained, single bedroom or studio flats.

Yes, there are lots of cheap 50k-100k houses. But what everyone forgets is the
upkeep on those houses is enormous. You might have a $800/month mortgage
payment on a 3 bedroom house, but also have to pay another $500-$1,000/month
upkeep on that house.

My "cheap" Midwest home in Michigan (2br, 1350sqft) costs $1700/month in
mortgage+upkeep. An luxury apartment in a downtown Seattle (2br, 850sqft) can
be had for $1800/month. 40% higher wages on the coast, and only an extra
$100/month in housing costs. (Zillow:
[http://bit.ly/1sx9LH2](http://bit.ly/1sx9LH2))

You won't save a lot of money on rent/living expense in the Midwest, you'll
just get a lot more empty house space "for free". That's great if you need
lots of empty space (for kids and such). But otherwise, the cost of living
difference is not _nearly_ as large as people pretend it is.

Yes, the literal dirt a building sits on is cheaper away from the coasts (land
value). But that's literally the only difference in cost -- nearly everything
else is more-or-less the same price (including home and building expenses,
professional services, food, clothing, electronics, etc).

Some are even more expensive in the Midwest (home repairs and maintenance,
nearly all utilities, etc)

~~~
sliverstorm
I suppose I don't know exactly, but I live in the mountain region. It's about
$1,000 for a 800sqft 1br apartment. Many people complain how housing is at
least twice as expensive here as where they are from.

(I was elated, because housing here is _half_ as expensive as where I was
from!)

