.....actually, during the 1980's....i was still going with a table builder to the slate mines in PA to pick up sets of table slate.
Quarries in PA & VT are not played out.
I still buy architectural slate in PA, though rarely anymore. (getting too old)
It just costs more to extract table slate in the US, than to source it overseas. First in Italy, now there as well as Brazil & China.
IIRC, 3 pc set for an 8' table ( size John mostly built) cost around $150 for clear. (You never want ribbon, which is cheaper, for tables. The ribbons machine & wear differently causing balls to roll funny) Can't recall if that included quarry cutting the pockets, or leaving them blank for john to cut (he did it both ways). Seem to recall price was same for 1" or 3/4" thick. Might have been more for 3/4" because basic sale unit was 1". Quarry had to do more machining to yield 3/4". All told, i am certain the price was under $200/complete set at the time. John had to drill for pins with my jigs, and drill for the rails, either T-rail or GC style. He did both types. Can't recall if Italy was more or less at the time. but definitely similar. John did not like Italian, claiming it was "softer". Everyone has their prejudices. Since then I've read some think the opposite.
When i've ordered architectural slate since 1990, it is shipped and have not personally been to a slate mine since about that time. But if you watch the online video of Brunswick's method for extracting table slate - saw up the bed in place like a checkerboard, with a roadwork type diamond saw, then scoop it out in layers near net-size blocks with a forklift......then go peer deep down in a pit in PA & watch them using plug & feather methods to split out big car size chunks, rig them up to the sheds/factory with cable lines, and process them on machines some of which date right back to the late 19th c, it is like comparing a modern operation, and going back to medieval times.
The quarry John bought from had geared up and had some modern equipment specifically for pool table slate. Including the flat diamond hone machine. They had been approached, and invested in special machines to make sets for a "major table manufacturer" but the contract fell through. I called them within the past year or two after getting interested in pool again. The manager laughed, and said "wow, that was a long time ago" "we sold that equipment quite a while ago".
OK, besides nostalgia, the point of all this is start with the basics. pulling rocks out of the ground. It could have been continued here. It wasn't because overseas can do it cheaper. Partly condition (better mines), partly investment/efficiency, maybe partly labor. Was it really that much cheaper at the time? It might also be a supply-line thing - overseas can apparently do it faster, more product, without bottlenecks. So we get to the bigger economic picture. Why did we let that happen? It was really not consumer choice at the beginning. Tables (or pick your -quality- merch) did not get cheaper for the consumer. The profit margin went up for the marketer, and the risk factor went down. It is American labor that has been taking the hit. Us that had decent jobs did not complain much until recently, because while our real wages stagnated since sometime in the 80's, our purchasing power seemed to increase. Lots of other peoples' industries simply closed the doors and they lost theirs.
I can see both sides. I'm a liberal.
Have also been in business for myself since HS.
But as a liberal i can see that for a liberal culture to flourish, there needs to be a balance between capital and labor, and some sort of coherent industrial policies without getting protectionist.
smt