Products low on the value chain that are unskilled-labor intensive are almost universally cheaper abroad. It wouldn't make economic sense to make t shirts in the US unless consumers paid a premium.

Products high up on the value chain - the kind you don't dress up in your best slacks to go and buy at Walmart are a different story, however.

I can count several software projects that were outsourced off the top of my head that were ostensibly done for cost savings purposes and were utter disasters. These disasters are routinely covered up and bullshitted, too.

This has at the same time not dampened the appetite for outsourcing software much. Coordination (i.e. management) costs are higher. Consulting companies can bill millions for these projects.

This is the point the article was making - pretty cogently.

It's less of a smoke-filled room conspiracy and more of a mundane "conspiracy" to shape the supply/demand curve.