So there's an argument to be made for investments in reshoring as a way to build industrial resiliency and institutional knowledge (this article by @danwwang, for example: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-05-07/why-american-manufacturing-can-t-handle-the-coronavirus), but targeting individual industries is _so_ not the way to do it. https://twitter.com/JimmyVielkind/status/1259652850994630657
Flagship industries like semiconductors or steel capture the public imagination, but a) compose a small share of offshored jobs and b) are likely not the lowest cost/best reshoring opportunity -- steel tariffs, for example, cost almost 1m per job created
Changing tax codes to penalize capital flight, investing in domestic R&D, investing in engineering/vocational programs, etc, are all ways that the US could make itself more attractive to manufacturers without engaging in inefficiently targeted econ dev practices like this. Alas.
To be clear: I don't generally believe that broad deglobalization of supply chains just for the sake of rebuilding domestic manufacturing is a good/productive idea. But if we're going to pursue any such policy, there are right and wrong ways to do so.
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