There are several issues embodied in this problem.
Firstly, we need materials that have downside effects that can (and should) be minimized. Lead serves a number of important and useful purposes upon which we depend. Proper controls mitigate those downside effects. The one that causes me to laugh up my sleeve is asbestos. The replacement materials for it have the same problems (short, sharp, and brittle fibers that pass around the environment and get lodged in places where they cause amazing damage). The primary difference is that we have regulations for processing, handing, and disposing of them that could be as easily applied to asbestos.
Second, we (i.e. Americans) have a government that has signed treaties that have resulted in our losing primary technologies to China and other countries. Few people today remember that, in the mid-/late-1970's, the American taxpayer footed the bill to rebuild and improve our major smelters -- and then, in the early-/mid-1980's, tore them down, packed them up, and shipped them overseas (to Korea and Taiwan mostly and initially) all at taxpayer expense. This was the period where US Steel reformulated itself into USX. The interpretation of the (Nixon era) treaties is getting more involved in our primary industrial base than most people realize.
In January of 2004, we (America) shut down the last high-strength bolt (screw) production line and shipped it to China. Our "business press" pontificated on how it was the cost of labor that drove this decision. As one of the machinist/technicians who built those machines (under a NASA/USAF funded program), I was somewhat amused by this statement. The machines we shipped out in 2004 were entirely automated -- bar stock is fed in at one end (using Automatic Guided Vehicles) and inspected, counted, and bagged screws come out the other end at a rate of 1.2 million/shift/week (for 1/4-20 X 1 inch long)! The only labor involved is changing out the thread rollers (call it 15 minutes of work performed twice a shift). In December of 2003 I purchased 3000 1/4-20 X 1 NAS qualified socket head cap screws for $6.15/100. In April of 2004 it cost me $8.40/100 -- and I had a 92% failure rate at acceptance testing (something that had never been higher than 2% previously) -- which is why I insist on purchasing only Mexican, Indian, or Brazilian made high-strength screws today!
