1. Younger workers have less desire to do menial labor - this is not merely a U.S. phenomenon. Factory owners in Malaysia and Thailand cannot recruit native workers, so they rely on guest worker programs that draw from Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and other impoverished southeastern Asia countries.

2. China is feeling the pain from the American tariffs. China’s EPA equivalent had really been cracking down on factories over the last three years to help reduce pollution levels in large Chinese cities. Over the last six months this agency has become much more lax on enforcing its rules because China needs these factories in production to help its economy.

3. It is the factory owners, and not the day laborers, who are feeling the pain of the American tariffs. It is nearly impossible for Chinese factories to lay off workers as employment is critical in a centrally-planned economy. When orders are severely reduced, and production slows down, the factories must still pay their workers and margins suffer as a result.

4. The driving force of automation in China is higher labor wages. People are getting paid more (and in turn have a better standard of living), factories are becoming less competitive on price due to these higher wages, which results in it making financial sense for these factories to invest in automation. However, this process usually takes decades to play out.

5. Some of the unintended effects of capitalism are beautiful. Many of the factories in Malaysia and Thailand do most of their business with North American customers. The guest workers in these factories make enough money to help their families buy homes, send their kids to school, or have capital to start a business when they return to their native countries.