I think the disintegration of suburban America is pre-ordained. Please compare ‘your’ empire with the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire. Note the similarities and the differences.

Paul Neumann, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

It might sound harsh, but if you don’t want to compete with unskilled labourers, perhaps it’s time you removed the ‘un’ from your own title?

A prior post described people in the US finding work that suited our abilities and technological level here. What does that mean? Are we going to make starships, warpdrives, and transporters? China can pretty much beat us on everything short of that. If you want really high quality stuff- which people would if they gave it a lot of thought, the US can still hold its own.

If you really wanted totally free trade, you’d have to get rid of managed trade policies like NAFTA, CAFTA, etc. If you really believe in it, unilaterally get the government out- I’d be all for that too.

We live in a JIT world where technology allows manufacturing to be more closely tuned to actual demands decreasing warehousing needs.

Frankly, a large cheap labor pool for manufacturing is exactly what you need to compete with other large, cheap labor forces. What’s wrong here is the idea that over all wages are decreased by the expansion of this “cheap” labor force. While it may keep wages for manufacturing and manual labor down, it doesn’t necessarily translate to decreased wages across the board.

Part of this moves based on what type of technology and service industries increase, usually requiring much more skilled labor. In the United States, over 75% of the citizens graduate from high school. Only 25% (or, around 35% of high school graduates) go on to college. Not really bad and certainly an exponential increase over past generations. meaning that these people do not go into manufacturing jobs as manual labors, but management or create jobs through opening businesses.

Vocational Tech schools have also picked up considerably (I can’t remember the figures at this time). That means that, in fact, over all, our “cheap labor pool” is disappearing.

When president Bush said that immigrants were doing the jobs that American’s “won’t” do, he didn’t mean that we had achieved some sort of level of wealth that made us too good to do manual labor, but that we had created a level of educated and skilled labor that was looking for work that matched our capabilities.

However, that does mean that we have to look for ways to compete in an every developing market. Its this argument that influences policy makers on immigration. It’s true that many immigrants from second or third world nations do not have the same education as most american citizens, but it’s also true that that lack places them squarely in the “cheap, unskilled labor pool” ready for manufacturing jobs that keep our products inexpensive and available on the global market, thus increasing profits, thus creating more opportunities for development of industrial machinery hooked to computer systems and expanded manufacturing that allows for expanded employment for skilled, educated labor in technology and management.

Finally, increasing over all economic success for people across all labor markets.

I have to agree with the writer of this story that, if Ohio is concerned about jobs leaving then it needs to do a few things like be more tax friendly to corporations and develop industrial complexes and an educated labor force that can be employed at or create businesses that are technologically driven.

Competition. It makes the world go round. Unless you live in a communist or socialist country.

As Tim and Mishu note, what you’re wishing for is already coming to pass. Besides, is the best way to get what you want to cut those “damn furriners” off, or is it to strip our own guild-protected elites of their government protection?

To OmegaPaladin:

I’m reminded of a Henry Payne cartoon from the 1992 elections. Ross Perot and Uncle Sam are facing the reader. Perot has a piece of paper in his hands labelled “U.S. Constitution, Article II, Section 10″, and he’s looking at Uncle Sam, who is rolling his eyes skyward in a “Lord, spare me this idiot” look. Perot says: “What’s this? Free trade ‘tween the states? That giant suckin’ sound y’all hear is all the jobs in the United States movin’ to low-wage Mississippi!”

Too bad so many people in all political parties have an understanding of economics on a par with Perot’s.

Well, you’re already getting your articles written for you by foreigners, as I mention…..:-)

Your xrays are already being read by Indian radiologists. Big 6 accounting firms are using H1B immigrants for consulting jobs. You are not the only one that has to compete.