How Much More Should Americans Pay Per Year to Boost Domestic Manufacturing and Jobs.

Michael Dioguardi

by Michael Dioguardi, Facebook, Sept, 24, 2026- There is absolutely no reason to pay more for “policies aimed at bringing manufacturing home.”

The goal should not be to make Americans pay more so that politicians can say they brought manufacturing home. The goal should be to make the United States such an attractive place to invest that businesses choose to manufacture here because it makes economic sense.

That means removing the barriers that make production expensive: excessive regulation and permitting delays, restrictive zoning, inadequate infrastructure, high energy costs, occupational licensing barriers, distortions in the tax code, expensive healthcare, and policies that discourage capital investment. It means allowing businesses to build, hire, invest, innovate and expand without having to obtain a subsidy or protection from government.

That is very different from tariffs, subsidies and industrial policy. Those policies attempt to make domestic production artificially attractive by making foreign goods more expensive or transferring costs to taxpayers. The result is that Americans pay more for the privilege of producing something here.

A better objective is simple: make America more productive. If producing a good in America is the most economically efficient choice, capital will come here without being bribed. And if producing something elsewhere is more efficient, Americans should be able to benefit from that lower-cost production while American capital and workers move toward the activities where they are most productive.

Manufacturing can grow substantially without trying to recreate the manufacturing economy of the 1950s. In fact, the more important measure is not how many people we employ in factories, but how much productive capacity we can create with the labor and capital available to us.

The question should therefore not be, “How much are Americans willing to pay to bring manufacturing home?”

It should be, “What can we remove that is preventing Americans from profitably producing more at home?”

That approach does not require Americans to pay more. It is intended to make them richer.

Michael Dioguardi is a residential property manager and independent blogger writing under the title Seeker of Liberty. Drawing on years of dedicated study of the U.S. Constitution, the Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers, landmark court decisions, and Austrian School economics, he analyzes contemporary challenges to individual liberty, institutional accountability, and economic stability. Michael resides in Nashville. 

Top Stories