Continuing from previous item.
The tech tyrants assure us that reshoring is impossible because an iphone would have to cost three times as much if we made it here.
First answer: Well, houses already cost three times as much as they should, and you’re not arguing with house prices. You didn’t prevent Larry Fink from cornering the market, because he was helping you to eliminate the Negative Externalities. Houses are necessary. Iphones aren’t.
Second and better answer:
Reshoring needs a Henry Ford. Cars were an expensive luxury because they were made in luxury ways, individualized for rich customers.
Henry narrowed down the variety and inventiveness in cars and made production efficient so that everyone could afford a car. The T was simple and adaptable. Different people reshaped it into trucks and snowmobiles and limousines and tractors.
Standard production enabled varied life.
Henry achieved low prices by paying workers three times as much per hour. He recognized that people and machines don’t work the same way. Machines are more efficient when they’re standardized and speeded up. People are more efficient when they get enough sleep, enough food and enough security and pleasure in life.
Varied life enabled standard production.
Polistra's Mill 