You had a factory making Zenith TV Sets
To make these sets you needed another factory making valves, another making the wooden cabinet, another making the additional electronics and another making the wiring
That’s a manufacturing ecosystem
Works fine in the 1960s and 1970s and 1980s
Slowly labor prices start rising
You make a valve for 17 cents in 1976 because you paid your laborers $ 3.50 an hour
In 1986, you pay them $ 7.50 an hour
So you have to sell your valve for 27 cents to keep the same profit margin
This is true of the electronics, the wiring, the cabinet and everything else
So the TV for which you once paid $ 349 and got a 18% profit now costs $ 519 and you get only a 12% profit
By 1990, the same TV costs $ 599 and you get a 6% profit
So you think you need to close down the business because your profits are low and getting lower all the time
Plus Televisions are becoming expensive despite new features
You try plastic cabinets, you try adding multiple channels, offer stereo functions but the economics doesn’t work
Then someone tells you
Look- You can go to Taiwan and they can make these Valves for 4 cents a piece instead of 30 cents and electronics for 37 Dollars a set instead of 160 dollars
You can pay them $0.80 an hour instead of $ 10
You can sell the same TV for $ 599 now and get a profit of 45%
6% Profit vs 45% Profit!!!
So the factory owner pays off his American workforce who cost him 10 bucks an hour and relocates to Taiwan and later when Taiwan becomes too expensive, to China and later to Vietnam or Mexico or India
Its Economics not Political