@a_yank_lurker
I'm not American, so have no skin in this game, but I think you downplay the economic factors of outsourcing manufacturing. It isn't just to "save a few pennies" as you put it, the difference in the wages payed is such that to try and make the same products in any developed country and pay developed country's wages would mean a 30 - 40% increase in unit costs.
However, added to that, there is the cost of the regulatory burden in the US particularly, where the processes of manufacture used by the low-wage countries may not even be allowed in the US, or only by putting in place very expensive monitoring or containment processes.
Yes, of course there is an element of protecting their profits, but I'm not sure consumers would be prepared to pay for the actual cost of goods manufactured in the US, as opposed to abroad.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
