Fstoppers, a US-based photography gear company, faced a stark reality: producing a simple component domestically would cost over $80 per unit, compared to $7.50 in China, a more than tenfold increase.

The textile mills that once served as the backbone of Mount Pleasant, North Carolina, have long been shuttered, and officials believed federal money would be key to the town's overdue revitalization.

Not the polite version you see on YouTube thumbnails with fireworks and Lambos, but the raw one. The one you ask yourself at ...