The rest of the world is catching up with us and we are going to have to compete for the lucrative jobs.
Before we only had to compete against other Americans, now we have to compete against the world.
Being born in this country gives us a huge advantage against others, but it is no longer a guarantee of success.
Nowhere is that more abundantly clear than here in Shanghai. So much so, that you'll be interested to hear that Indian software companies are moving here to set up operations to produce software for Bangalore companies developing outsourced software from the US. I met two Indian engineers last week while doing my gig at a local pub, who told me that Bangalore wages have skyrocketed from virtually nothing to 30K a year, and still - they can't find enough engineers to do the work.
Now, they're coming here to take advantage of Shanghai wages that range from 7K to 14K a year - which are considered primo local wages.
We have ALWAYS competed in the world economy, but we were winning. Our wages and work ethics were in line with what we produced, and it guaranteed our victory.
Now we have a nation of whiners who had it for too long too good. People expect all sorts of benefits from employers as well as high salary -- out of proportion with what they produce. Nobody saves for medical care, but the TV sets, worth thousands of dollars, are flying out of stores in a hurry. Nobody cared to learn a foreign language --- a few hundred bucks for a course in a local community college --- but average house is 40% bigger than in 1950s (while the family is smaller by a factor of 2, which makes housing per person about 3 times greater). And all complain that they are "just trying to make ends meet." All of the above --- unreasonably high demands for salary and benefits, especially the latter -- make our labor unreasonably expensive. That's all.