Who do you think transfers more money out of this country. The individual citizens buying vacuum cleaners, or corporations and billionaires who funneled their money to tax havens overseas. The only people harmed by the current economic policy are individuals trying to feed their families. Corporations are making more money than ever before. The wealthiest people in the world are more wealthy than they ever have been in recent history.

But you know what? Let’s just put all the blame and responsibilty on the families. They should have bought their vacuum cleaners from cousin Billy down the street. The shitty economy is all their fault.

Do you hear how silly that sounds?

I agree with your sentiment, but I don’t believe there’s any way to put genie back in the bottle.

I think the more realistic path forward will be made available with advancements in automation and small scale, limited batch manufacturing. But neoliberals will fight those efforts tooth & nail, because neoliberalism requires large scale centralized and specialized manufacturing to maintain broad power by controlling imports & exports. Diverse small batch manufacturing would allow for self-sufficient smaller communities, and threaten the current power structure.

Does the foreign vacuum work better? Is it more compact? Are the technologies it is built on protected by IP law? If it’s a cheap junk crescent wrench that I’ll use once because I need it only once, I’d rather not pay double for quality.