I would like this too, but I'm not sure I can justify this desire in any rational way. The reasons I hear against manufacturing in China are that the workers are slaves that make no money, and that the quality is inferior.
But big companies seem to have the QC down; I have lots of well-made stuff from China. I cringe at the thought that all my IKEA furniture is made in China, but it was all perfectly manufactured and has held up wonderfully for many years. Good design + good QA means you can get good product out of China. (There is lots of poorly-made stuff from China, but it's poorly-made because it's rock-bottom cheap, not merely cheap. Rock-bottom cheap stuff made anywhere is crap.)
The next issue is the labor one. I ask myself, how would pulling all manufacturing out of China help the Chinese people? $1/day buys more food than $0/day, right? So would manufacturing stuff outside of China help the overall human condition? Would it help me? What's the advantage here?
Just a small data point: the $4 made-in-China shirts I buy at Target seem to be better stitched than the average $20 made-in-America shirts I buy from American Apparel. I have had a lot of the AA shirts just completely unravel in the first wash. I always get an apology and a replacement, but I've never had a cheap Target T-shirt do this. So China is not automatically worse, although I do prefer the American-made product for other reasons.
But big companies seem to have the QC down; I have lots of well-made stuff from China. I cringe at the thought that all my IKEA furniture is made in China, but it was all perfectly manufactured and has held up wonderfully for many years. Good design + good QA means you can get good product out of China. (There is lots of poorly-made stuff from China, but it's poorly-made because it's rock-bottom cheap, not merely cheap. Rock-bottom cheap stuff made anywhere is crap.)
The next issue is the labor one. I ask myself, how would pulling all manufacturing out of China help the Chinese people? $1/day buys more food than $0/day, right? So would manufacturing stuff outside of China help the overall human condition? Would it help me? What's the advantage here?
Just a small data point: the $4 made-in-China shirts I buy at Target seem to be better stitched than the average $20 made-in-America shirts I buy from American Apparel. I have had a lot of the AA shirts just completely unravel in the first wash. I always get an apology and a replacement, but I've never had a cheap Target T-shirt do this. So China is not automatically worse, although I do prefer the American-made product for other reasons.