To be clear, I’m not saying your or anyone else’s life is “nice.” I’m saying that however nice (or not) your life currently is, it will be worse. Those goods at Walmart will cost 30% more and still be equally threadbare. You’re mixing two things together, the declining quality of goods, and the places those goods are made.
Did you know you can buy premium clothes made in China? You can. Check out producers like Bob Dong or Bronson. Ironically, they make a lot of thick, quality clothes inspired by vintage US work-wear. The reason you probably never heard of them is buyers have to pay extra for that quality, and the appetite isn’t there.
The fact that everything you buy is cheaply constructed of cheap materials is entirely due to that being what sells. Most consumers won’t pay a premium for quality, so you have to go out of your way to look for it. Moving mass-market garment manufacturing back to America won’t change that.
If you just want to pay fistfuls of dollars for quality American-made clothing, you can do that today. Go buy yourself a $70 t-shirt from Lady in White. I’m sure we’ll be able to make shittier clothing cheaper, but it’s still going to be a lot more than shoppers are used to paying. You’re never going to get any American-made shirt for $4.98.
As to why tariffs constitute withdrawing: other countries can and will retaliate. China is not going to buy our expensive American-made commodity products, especially when they’ve got a 55% import duty on them, when they can buy equal or better quality things made at home or in SE Asia for half the price.
Even if successful, tariffs will make goods expensive. There’s no way around that. There is 0 reason to believe they will make goods any better. With reduced competitive pressure, quality is more likely to drop, if anything.
One of the "big things" people would joke about alongside solving world hunger was world clothelessness. People don't seem to realize that in our global economic state (at least a week ago) we solved that problem so hard that there's a pile of clothes in the atacama desert¹ (not to say it's without its consequences). Plastic microfibers are a problem I admit, but I would happily eat my weekly credit card(/s) knowing that far fewer people have to go naked. I for one hope that thrifting can fill the gaps, it may take a while to replace the 8000+ laborers that take part in making your white t-shirt² and maybe more.
Did you know you can buy premium clothes made in China? You can. Check out producers like Bob Dong or Bronson. Ironically, they make a lot of thick, quality clothes inspired by vintage US work-wear. The reason you probably never heard of them is buyers have to pay extra for that quality, and the appetite isn’t there.
The fact that everything you buy is cheaply constructed of cheap materials is entirely due to that being what sells. Most consumers won’t pay a premium for quality, so you have to go out of your way to look for it. Moving mass-market garment manufacturing back to America won’t change that.
If you just want to pay fistfuls of dollars for quality American-made clothing, you can do that today. Go buy yourself a $70 t-shirt from Lady in White. I’m sure we’ll be able to make shittier clothing cheaper, but it’s still going to be a lot more than shoppers are used to paying. You’re never going to get any American-made shirt for $4.98.
As to why tariffs constitute withdrawing: other countries can and will retaliate. China is not going to buy our expensive American-made commodity products, especially when they’ve got a 55% import duty on them, when they can buy equal or better quality things made at home or in SE Asia for half the price.
Even if successful, tariffs will make goods expensive. There’s no way around that. There is 0 reason to believe they will make goods any better. With reduced competitive pressure, quality is more likely to drop, if anything.