Manufacturing Is For Poor Countries.
In the free market, when people voluntarily exchange goods/services, they are both better off (otherwise the trade would not have happened).
If you want to buy local things from local merchants, you can always do so. If you're willing to pay a higher price, there will always be people willing to make whatever you want locally. Demand creates it's own supply.
As for China in particular, we would still be importing goods from other countries without China. Suppose China didn't exist, we still wouldn't be making things ourselves. We would be importing things from India, Africa, and other poor countries.
The consumer is king, they decide who makes what and where. If the consumer was willing to pay more for obese low-skilled American labor, they would already do so.
The reason why developed countries no longer have 20%+ of their population in farming is because farming is for poor countries.
The reason why developed countries no longer have 20%+ of their population in manufacturing is because manufacturing is for poor countries.
Ironically, the only real way that America will ever go back to becoming a manufacturing powerhouse is if we become extremely poor for some reason. For example, Japan and Germany became manufacturing powerhouses after WW2, because that's what poor countries have to do. You can't sell product to your own population (because they are poor), and so you have to sell product to other countries that can afford the product.
As for all these people that glorify manufacturing: It's nearly always some fat fuck like Trump that never did manual labor a day in their life, and wouldn't want to see their children do that shit either.
Most people prefer to sit in an office in an air conditioned environment versus doing backbreaking labor on a farm or a factory.
