I think we went through a period of artificially low prices
This is the crux of it all, and that's an understatement for sure. We got lulled into the numbers over the years and mistook it for reality. If you were paying attention over the last decade, the notice had been given by several entities, many times, that this is not reality, and future events eventually would bring us to the point we've arrived at today. Fixed incomer's and minimum wage earners having to choose between a tank of gas or that extra bag or two of groceries or even paying the utilities was quite accurately predicted. No way wages, even with what seem to be amazing leaps in hourly rates could keep up with the inflation. We didn't know how or when, but seems the pandemic did the trick.

How often did I look at furniture store pieces being sold as finished products for less than the cost of the raw materials to build it myself, after the markups. Seemed impossible. Because it was. Then I read a book called "Factory Man". Quite an eye opener about Mr. Basset of Basset furniture, and the discussions he had directly with some of the Chinese factories. No politics, just the cold hard truth of this situation as it pertained to the furniture industry. They have no respect for us, and are very much interested in destroying us by providing an endless supply of cheap goods, and willfully pirating anything we bring to their factories to produce for pennies on the dollar. As Mr. Basset was told, plainly and directly, we'll make these items as cheaply as you want them, on one condition: go back to America and close the last of your factories.

Now let's talk good news:
Glad to see furniture plywood and hardwoods have leveled a bit. A delayed wave of radical price swings in that sector of the lumber industry over the structural grades had those numbers up an average of 50% on hardwoods and often close to 100% or more on sheet goods as recent as last fall. In fact, the current load of hardwoods I'm working with was back down to pre-pandemic levels, and I paid as much as $30 less per sheet for certain plys vs. last fall, bringing the increase down to about 30-50% vs. that peak for sheet goods.
When you're pulling orders of 30+ sheets, this is very significant, indeed. Even Baltic birch has leveled off a bit, and my local supplier never did run out completely.

Best news for me, when I wanted to upgrade to a couple higher dollar European machines about 18 months ago, the Asian competition had gone up so much due to shipping costs, it was much easier to justify investing in what are generally considered a big upgrade in engineering and quality.

jeff