Another of my relatives grew up poor in frontier Kentucky, joined the Confederate Army at a relatively late age, rose to Colonel by killing Yankees.
Then he became a lawyer and I lost all respect for him.
Ha!
What is striking about these threads is that they list the problems, but never the solutions. Keeping that in mind, I'd like to throw out some suggestions:
A)An emphasis on highly specialized skills and education to acquire those skills.
B)An emphasis on artisan type manufacturing of high-value stuff.
C)A new model for small businesses that allows for these firms to do business internationally without the high cost of overhead.