So did the buggy whip industry, for its time. If I had the money, then I could start a textile factory in Lancaster, SC and it would maybe employ a tenth of the people in your pic. That industry is either very automated or it has moved to very low labor companies. That is the nature of very low skilled labor.
Personally, I have more faith in Americans. We are a people that should be living on our ingenuity and inventiveness. In our ecoomy (well, when we have an economy) we must constantly be improving our skills, not only in an effort to remain the best in the world, but to also satisfy our own personal drive for self improvement.
All of that said, I will concede that we have been handcuffed by decades of gov’t intervention and will not be able to get back to where we should be performing until we can get the gov’t off our backs. They are doing nothing but dragging us down.
A nation of people with only mental acumen won't last much longer.