>>I have no interest in using protectionism to save blue collar jobs at the expense of white collar jobs.
Me neither. But, this is a reality that we must face. The unemployed blue collar people will drag us into socialism and that will affect us in ways that are more harmful to us than to them.
We need blue collar industries to keep them busy and working and motivated to believe in work more than in government.
What would you do with them? The abortion industry does a pretty good job of culling the herd, but we are against that. As you stated, protectionism isn’t a solution. Education is just putting lipstick on a pig. Obamacare Death Panels for the working age people who won’t work?? Labor camps? Forced segregation (reservations)? What is your solution?
Once they force us into socialism, the government will probably do all of the above since communists don’t like useless eaters and a communist state has a lot less room to operate on the margin than a capitalist state.
Service industry.