> .. but why has so much manufacturing been offshored to places with cheaper manual labor? We know how to build highly automated factories.

Western consumers have been voting with their wallets for decades - they want lots of cheap products.

If you want to get a new product produced today you'll likely be able to produce it much cheaper abroad, where there's a more efficient supply chain and cheap labour and with much less initial overhead.

Make your product more expensive you'll likely be out of business before the next global pandemic.