[FrankR]

Good question.

First of all, there are many thousands of Americans who would love to sit on an assembly line and put together electronic, household, or other devices...for a paycheck.

The problem is, U N I O N S. They invade the workplaces and demand an exhorbitant salary for the workers. The factory owner either lays people off to afford it, or, moves to a "right to work" state to avoid the union demands.
Something has got to give.

[LastNorwegian]

Remove the unions and nothing changes... Many industries moving abroad were not heavily unionized. As long as living and other expenses are lower abroad western jobs will be moved abroad.

Even with taxes being the same it would still be cheaper to make things in the 3rd world. Saying that the West should have open borders and compete with the 3rd world for jobs is like suggesting Alaska can compete with Florida for beach tourism.

And that’s before we look at the various trade hindrances China and other nations employ to protect their industries. There is no such thing as a level playing field.

[MASS-2 FAC]

Frank, I agree with you regarding the unions killing USA industry but there is another issue that needs to be put on the table.

Look at the revenue of the semiconductor industry as a percentage of the GDP during the mid-1980’s. We in the technology sector were the rising star in generating revenue for this country.

Politicians look at us and found out that they could trade out technology for campaign contributions from the Chinese.
We were forced to hire and train Chinese in all phases of the industry. Then came the “reverse brain-drain” back to China and Taiwan.

Now, they own the technology and we are begging for a piece of the action just to survive. BHO just gave out NASA program to China. Clinton sold out technology to China and Carter agreed to train Chinese engineers on how our semiconductor industry works.

Semper Fi...