Turns out that manufacturing toys, consumer electronics, semiconductors, etc. is very important for future wars that use cheap drones instead of $2,000 155mm artillery shells.
It's not clear that we predicted that shift, so it's a good reason to maintain some manufacturing capability in pretty much all areas, comparative advantage be damned.
Sounds like a good way to not get your quarterly bonus!
China leapfrogged the world by copying the world's work up till then. Why can't US leapfrog by copying back?
Or are you saying people wouldn’t do something short sighted if it made them super rich in the meantime?