It's a Pretty Sad Day

While at the local office supply store (previously known as "stationer'") your faithful correspondent happened to pick up a box or Dixon Ticonderoga pencils and noticed two things: the box lacked the rendition of Ethan Allen as was the norm in days gone by, and that the pencils were made in China,
When this writer was a wee laddie Ticonderoga pencils were THE pencil for writing. Drafting and engineering pencils were another thing left best to the professionals. Those pencils were usually German, and thus suspect. But Ticonderoga pencil, especially the 2.5, were what pencil writing was all about. And they were, up until recently, made in the US.
Now this writer finds that "The World's Best Pencil" is made in China.
The question arises: Why? Pencil making is pretty much an automated process and one finds oneself wondering if the cost of labor and shipping from China of the pencils is really so much cheaper than the manufacture of pencils in the US.
Up until now your faithful correspondent has been an enthusiastic, indeed, a champion, of Ticonderoga pencils. But no more. This writer refuses to rely on, or pay, an oppressive regime to write his daily missives and calculations. Instead, being unable to buy a decent writing pencil made in the US, he will pay his custom to either Mars-Staedler or Koh-I-Noor. They may be German, but they don't rely on slave labor.