I’m not too found of China...
But I don’t think they are “stealing” all the jobs.
We just have way better jobs.
And, the average “poor” person today is materially better off than the average “middle class” person in 1950.
This is the economics of specialization at work...
China has one very abundant product: cheap labor
America has a lot of manufacturing infrastructure and despite the sorry state of our government school system, still has a relatively highly educated workforce. We also have many great innovators in our country. We figure out how to do things and make things.
Now, one thing I learned in my economics studies is that if each company plays to its strengths, both countries benefit hugely. China is playing to its strength of cheap abundant labor and they are specializing in labor-intensive industries. The USA is innovating as we always have and developing new industries - a la the duckweed plant in NC mentioned in the article. Industries like the US auto makers have not been innovating technologically. They have not automated to their fullest potential and so they are losing out to foreign competitors big time. Hyundai has set up an assembly plant in Alabama that has a total staff of 38 workers! This is the future of manufacturing! Those 38 employees are surely highly educated and are turning out many many high quality cars. Another example would be Intel’s factory that has zero employees - it is completely automated!
Workers must see these trends develop and use them to their advantage. They need to either take initiative to further their education in their chosen industry or develop skills needed for a different industry that will be around for the remainder of their working days.
Or they could start their own business like I have done in the past.