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Dobbs doesn't seem to understand that its the total failure of the US education system that has lead to Indian outsourcing.

The average home here is selling for around $300,000.00. It is very hard to educate yourself out of that kind of overhead. It is our own bloated internal cost structure, coupled with excess predatory litigation, that is causing us to be less competitive. We are getting to the point where we can choose to either reinvigorate our job market, or collapse our property values. I doubt that the bubble between the two will hold for much longer.

It is our own bloated internal cost structure, coupled with excess predatory litigation, that is causing us to be less competitive.

This says it all. It's so true. Housing around here isn't so high, but there is a glut of overpriced houses on the market with people desparate to sell because of relocation. That bubble is close to bursting. Thanks at least in part to the litigation issues bloated costs, cost of living increases are far outpacing any incomes and raises.

The average home here is selling for around $300,000.00. It is very hard to educate yourself out of that kind of overhead. It is our own bloated internal cost structure, coupled with excess predatory litigation, that is causing us to be less competitive. We are getting to the point where we can choose to either reinvigorate our job market, or collapse our property values. I doubt that the bubble between the two will hold for much longer.

Excellent point.

To a certain degree, housing prices are also a reflection of the failure of the educational system. Palo Alto, CA's public schools are excellent, and many of their grads go on to the "best" CA state universities. But an average home price in Palo Alto is around $1,000,000.

Even in a relatively low-housing-cost city like St. Louis, decent school districts are going to add a 100-200% premium on the cost of a house.

This is mostly the result of failed experiments by the federal courts in the 1970s and 1980s with court-mandated desegregation. The result was that people moved farther & farther out (in order to be out of the reach of the court-mandated plans.) These new, expensive suburbs developed good schools, but their housing prices have inflated enormously.

Another reason for the great inflation in housing prices is that people decided that real estate was a good place to plop their money left over after the dot-bomb.

The point is, of course, that even with two professional salaries, in some parts of the US it's very expensive to buy a house in a good school district.