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Note: Whatever happened to the important word "manufacturing?" When one puts these three paragraphs together it's seen that what is being re-formed is essentially a downgraded company and an industry being gutted into becoming an empty shell with a clique of executives making money through shuffling around work and products done on plantations in other nations. "Very few people in the world can build an airplane and make it safe." Yes, and soon Boeing will no longer be one of them. And neither will America. These people aren't building airplanes or anything else. They are basically a breed of incompetent useless bullshitters who don't want responsibility for serious concrete production, who have found a place to hide and are making quick profits from destroying the economy needed to maintain the company. The bullcrap part of the business will be kept here while substance will be let go. This entire nation is on the way to being gutted of substance.

250 years ago, about 95% of the human race was engaged in agriculture. Then came the Industrial Revolution, steam-power, followed by the internal-combustion engine. By the late 20th Century, less than 5% of the population was growing the food for the other 95%. It came about because a skilled farmer with tractors, combines, etc could out-produce an army of peasants

We are on the edge of another fundamental transformation. At the moment, semi-skilled Chinese workers are cheaper than semi-skilled American labor. Within ten years, computer-controlled robotic machinery will be cheaper than even semi-skilled slave-labor Third-world workers. In that environment, the only people in a position to create value will be engineers and designers

and I meant to add: ... and we are killing the engineering field in the US with the H1B program. When the only people who add value are engineers and designers, and they are mostly from Asia, what happens to America then?

In that environment, the only people in a position to create value will be engineers and designers

Question: Just who do you think will constitute the majority of these "engineers and designers?" I tend to agree with you, that's why I ask.

I've had that same thought too about robots and machines taking over. But the more machines you create, the more there are things that break down...and have to be repaired. People have to be willing to adapt to changing circumstances...trite but true.