Tech and electronic manufacturing specifically is problematic for North American reshoring because it requires different labor price points for different parts (wiring systems, plastic shells, batteries) with wage differences of approximately 10x from low-end to high-end, which East Asia achieves through geographic stratification across countries.
factualpending
Speaker
Peter ZeihanEvidence Quote
“to do tech manufacturing and electronic manufacturing, you have to have different price points for labor to represent the different parts that go into a product. So, if you're going to have a modern desktop phone, there's a wiring system, there's a plastic shell, uh there may be a battery unit, all of those are going to be different done by different workforces with different rates of compensation and different rates of skill. And one of the reasons electronics have been done so well in East Asia is you have the high-end in Japan and Korea and Taiwan. You have the mid-range in Malaysia and Indonesia. You've got the low end in China and then the bargain basement in places like the Philippines”
Created: 8/10/2026, 10:51:07 PM
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