[central_va]

Well-paying jobs in several local manufacturing companies go unfilled because applicants (1) can't read a blueprint, perform simple arithmetic calculations, or follow a short list of instructions; (2) can't pass a drug test; or (3) once hired, don't show up for work on time or at all.

Well paying? Prove it. The fact is you can fill any position if the salary level is commensurate with the skills and the background. Funny how Free Traitors™ like to bash the social ills of the USA's workforce but want to forgot those same arguments when it comes to Free Trade. Then it is a purely economic argument, all other consideration are not important.

But getting back to your example I'll bet if you pay someone 100K/yr with benefits you could fill that position tomorrow. I'll bet if you pay $8.00/hr you will get few takers, the ones you get will be of low IQ, have an attitude and a police record too plus generally unreliable. So the trick is to find the correct price point between 10k/yr and 100k/yr. You can't set a price then try to shoehorn people into that salary range. What happened to supply and demand and free markets? The Captains of Industry seem to forget them at hiring time.

[riverdawg]

The problem is that many of “our lower classes” don't have the skills and work ethic to warrant $15/hour, much less a “well-paying” job. If it takes $50/hour to hire a drug-free, literate production worker to install windshields on an auto assembly line, then management will buy and use a robot to do the job. That choice has nothing to do with offshoring.