General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: So Donald Trump wants to bring all of these manufacturing jobs back to the US. using tarriffs. One problem. [View all]jmowreader
(51,581 posts)Problem 1: it takes a long time to set up a factory. Assuming you can find a building big enough to hold the factory, you've got to run new electrical, water, air and vacuum lines, get rid of the wildlife currently in residence there, buy machines, etc., etc., etc...and that doesn't even count the training time needed to get up to speed.
Problem 2: much of the equipment you need for a factory is made overseas. I watch a YouTube channel where the guy on it is "trying to bring manufacturing back to America." He's a good guy and means well; his plant is full of Korean and European machines. There are a few manufacturers of this equipment in the US, but there's no way they can serve all the new factories Trump wants.
Problem 3: Lights-out manufacturing. Building a factory today doesn't necessarily mean hiring anyone to work in it. It is completely possible, and is being done right now, to build a factory where all the machines work with no human intervention. You might have ONE maintenance person in the building to monitor all the machines from a control room and fix anything the machines can't fix themselves, but other than that...no workers.
Problem 4: even if you build this no-worker factory your prices will still be higher than overseas because someone has to pay for all that neat shit - and it'll be the customers.
Problem 5: Trump will probably keel over from whatever diseases hamberder-fed 80-year-old men get long before any of these factories are running.
And...
Problem 6: Trump is going to get beat like a rug in November so it won't matter anyway.