/biz/ - Business & Finance

It seems like we are very slowly (and far too late) coming to the realisation that outsourcing all your manufacturing eventually outsources your power and control.
This is particularly conspicuous in the case of things like Huawei and 5G, where western countries are desperately pumping money into Scandinavian telcos as they realise, far too late, that getting a competitive foreign country to build your baseline telecommunications infrastructure is fucking insane.
The USA rose to ascendancy on the back of strong domestic manufacturing and has deferred a huge amount of power and influence to China by sending its manufacturing overseas. On top of that, multiple generations of comfortable, first world Westerners don't have the same sort of hunger and drive for success that is pushing incredible advances in the East.
What can you do about this? Do you just try to manufacture high-end products domestically? Do you try to outperform Chinese manufacturing with automation in the place of cheap labour, but if that's the case how does the West even catch up, when we're already lagging and falling further behind when it comes to manufacturing processes?
I see a tremendous amount of "We will stay at the top just because" sentiment that comes from decades of Western success and complacency, and was a hallmark attitude of many empires in their final days.
How do you fix the national security problems that come with offshore manufacturing? How do you compete with a country with 1 billion willing, low paid workers without sacrificing your own labor force's rights? Why isn't this discussed more?