Homegrown Manufacturing

Why is it a big pattern in Western countries to move their manufacturing facilities to far eastern countries? Why do we have to import this from such far away places, commodities such as oil for instance.

I live in Britain (Wales to be exact) and it makes me sad that we've lost so much of our industrial and manufacturing base, that companies have move their production lines to far away countries just becuase they pay lower wages, that to me is disgusting. I think it should be mandatory that businesses stay here, that they committ to providing jobs and keep our manufacturing base in the West.

What would happen if a global catastrophe occurred? Or god forbid another big war broke out? We'd be isolated, cut off and starved because we've virtually moved our entire production base to other places.

I'm not against the fact that factories that are opened in far away countries providing jobs for the locals, that's a great thing but unfortunetely it's to the detriment of the West. Not to mention the fact that a certain amount of exploitation is done by the companies on the people over there.

It angers me when i hear about people being laid off work, the fact that companies are downsizing so that they can sustain profits, it shouldn't be like that.

Why can't we construct big glass domes for instance, where we could grow our own exotic fruits. Why can't the government somehow provide an incentive for companies to come back, to provide more jobs. Why can't we open more ports so we can reignite the ship building industry.

If we look at most goods, they all say 'Made in China' or India or Taiwan. What if we were cut off from those countries? What if something happened and we couldn't get oil from the Middle East? Who could supply oil? Russia? Venezuela? Texas? North Sea?

I fear that one day our over reliance on foreign manufacturing and imports will be our downfall. I'm not against global trade, not at all. It's just this issue worries me, surely we can still trade with other countries and retain manufacturing in the West, where it belongs.

Let the other countries develope their own manufacturing base, without the West trampling over theirs.

I'll probably have strong disagreements but this is a strong opinion of mine, which concerns an issue that needs to be discussed.