The techniques to both improve quality and reduce costs were developed in the USA - look up Deming...
US manufacturers weren't interested... he took his work to Japan, and the car companies there, adopted it in full...
Within a few years, their quality went up dramatically, AND their costs went down.
The methods travelled to Europe, to Korea, and only started taking hold in the USA, in the 1990's....
Look at European factory workers, their wages aren't that far off from US worker wages, the cost of labour is not the only ingredient in the mix - and China is not the only point of comparison.
