April 20, 2025

Technology keeps getting more complex. With digitalization, the complexities vastly increased. That means a lot of components are built by separate suppliers who specialize and need global markets. Those complexities are too demanding for small markets.

That means the factories had to globalize, or they would have become nonfunctional, irrelevant and bankrupt.

Some persons try to portray globalization as a system of government. There never will be such a government. The only real globalization is a method of trade. It evolved, because increasing technological complexities could not be produced with isolationism creating barriers between countries.

A smart phone cannot be produced in one country. There are too many demanding parts. But even in simpler products, component parts get produced around the world due to the need for highly specialized manufacturing.

Increased specialization is needed with modern complexities including digitalization. So a factory produces demanding components. A lot of research and experience are needed to improve technically demanding parts.

The old concept of multiple competitors producing the same thing no longer exists. The manufacturer that produces the best result will be the only one used. Splitting up the pie is no longer possible, because buyers will always resort to the best, as complex technology is pushed to its limits. There are exceptions during transitions to new products, but the lesser products fall to the wayside. Even automobiles will offer differences in choices, as complexities increase; and similarities eliminate competitors due to demanding requirements that are met best by only one producer.

That doesn't mean an absence of competition; it means a shift in competition from multiple producers producing the same product to each product vying for the choices of consumers. Products need to be impressive, or consumers turn to something else.

Now try to imagine doing all of that in Ohio or Texas. Move four billion workers in and construct a million square miles of parking lots; and that is what bringing the manufacturing back means.

Even bringing back a few factories would require competitive efficiency. That's something that evolves requiring a suitable ecology, not a political process. Every micro decision based on science, engineering, resources, supply chains and distribution is relevant to the modern complexities, while politicians don't have a clue what the requirements are and imagine in nineteenth century terms.

Defying the evolution of the process is like trying to transplant mangrove trees to a desert.

Adding tariffs to the process doesn't mean a tacked on price; it means changing the ecology of products that don't tolerate a changed ecology. As some producers go under, an avalanche of problems result.

That isn't how politicians, economists or journalists are evaluating the subject, because they know nothing of science, engineering, manufacturing, resources, supply chains or distribution processes. Spending their time on sociology left no concept of what modern technology consists of.