Can't disagree with the offshoring argument. Terribly difficult to get things back, once things have migrated overseas, including the knowledge base. That being said, supply side has been severely disrupted in the past few years. Don't think that the disruption is over yet. Domestically there's transportation and delivery issues as well.
Unfortunately the financial system is skewed to profit at the expense of many greater goods. The financiers don't know or care to count the cost of total dependence on other countries. Or loss of a countries critical capabilities. They are not rewarded for that, so they don't even consider it. They sole sourced to the cheapest supplier. They cut inventory to the bone, because JIT is the financially responsible thing to do. JIT is not resilient. They are now just finding out that "not putting all your eggs into any one basket" is a good idea. It's odd to me, because back in the day (30 years ago) when I worked for a defense contractor, we were admonished to have multiple suppliers, for all critical parts, lest there be a disruption. Seems that many people didn't get that message at all. So they cut costs and jobs and rode the gravy train, all the while reducing the resilience of the country to endure these upsets.
Sorry, didn't want to get philosophical, or political. However, seems this thread is generating now activity than I expected.
More frustrated that this hobby is getting far harder than I anticipated. Find I'm doing a ton of meta-work, just to get to the point of doing or making chips. Understood that's part of machining, but sure seems tough to get going. Still building up my local infrastructure (facility & tools) so it is a little easier to make things.
SAP ..................stop all production .
