Unless Americans are being more productive, more efficient, more innovative, more high-quality, or some other category, there’s no reason we shouldn’t be paid peanuts and live in huts like our competitors.
Bingo. We have a winner. It is actually a bit worse - those few senior managers who make decisions in the big companies found that they could feather their own nests better by eliminating capital investment in the US and making it elsewhere and importing cheap crap to sell to US consumers, who financed it on over-extended credit. This game is almost over because people without jobs and without access to credit can no longer buy the cheap crap.
One ot the big losses in this country is entrepreneurs like George Eastman, who saw his employees also as neighbors and viewed the quality of the products produced by his company as an indicator of his own character. The carpetbaggers who now run the companies founded by Eastman and like-minded men in the previous century are a disgrace to the legacy of their founders.
But don't you see--it's not bad character that leads those to invest elsewhere. What good does it do to make high-quality merchandise if the consumer won't purchase it more readily than competitors' goods? All you do is run yourself out of business, and who does that help?
The carpetbaggers who now run the companies founded by Eastman and like-minded men in the previous century are a disgrace to the legacy of their founders.
In the previous century, we had a workforce that was demonstrably superior to others, with innovation (roll film!) and the ability to produce things that either were not produced elsewhere or were competitive.
Now, with the corporate income tax that's huge and wages that far exceed those of workers in other countries, a company that remains here is making itself very uncompetitive. And tell me, why should a German buy an American product at a much higher price? We can force Americans to do so (via tariffs), but we're in a global economy now...and the only answer is to drop our taxes and wages...or give some reason why we're that much superior to overseas workers.
Sorry such a long reply. Perhaps this sums it up.
I know of a long-standing American corporation that has tried very hard to stay in America with its manufacturing, but they were having lots of quality complaints on a garment they make.
They went to China, which has lots of experience with garment-making, and found that their complaints have dropped—plus their costs are lower.
How are they supposed to keep in the US and try to sell their garment at a higher price than the competitor who sets up shop with Chinese-produced product?
TANSTAAFL.