Shareholders made tons of money and consumers saved tons of money.

People demand cheap shit, and riot over expensive stuff. Hell Trump is arguably in power because people couldn't handle prices increasing since 2020 (despite wages increasing too).

Consumers didn't save tons of money. They just bought more stuff with the money they had.

> People demand cheap shit and riot over expensive stuff

Sure, agree. But moving manufacturing to China wasn't done under pressure of Americans protesting that prices were high.

No, but it was done under pressure of Americans buying Walmart over local mom and pop.

I cannot take anyone seriously who thinks people care about "Made in USA" more than $10 sweatshirts and $50 dinnerware sets.

I didn't say Americans cared about Made in USA - any more than they care that WalMart destroyed small down America.

And by the time they wonder where the jobs all went and start griping about it, it's too late.

But it was a deliberate decision to offshore manufacturing that started the process (you can't sell cheaper goods until you start making cheaper goods abroad). Americans didn't switch from Kraft or Whirlpool or whatever to some Chinese brand. US companies offshored production.

I remember the 90s before China joined the WTO and things did feel “more expensive”, the rise of Chinese production definitely led to lower prices and basically tamed inflation for a couple of decades.