The good news is that if you had a job the employer would have to treat you well by government standards.
The bad news is that cost to employers to comply with government standards has killed employment.
Eggsactly Batman!
We own a small family Corporation with a few different businesses under the Corp. (Floor Coverning, Hobby Store, etc.) We could expand our businesses and hire more people but with the damned taxes and paperwork and ridiculous hoops one has to jump through it is easier to invest in Bonds and such.
One of my more liberal associates told me it was un-american to not expand my business. He told me it was my duty to hire more people.
Nope, sorry, it isn't my duty to take care of others, it is my duty to take care of my business in the way I see fit! And, as soon as the government tells me different then I am selling out and not doing a damned thing!
But it's not just the cost imposed by the government. You could take all of the government imposed cost out of the government and you would still not be anywere close to competitive with some of these third world countries.
In Iraq they are willing to work for $20 a month. How can you compete against that? In China I think it's $1-$2 a day. In Egypt a Doctor on the internet told me she makes $20 a week.
Yet we have the largest market. Allowing the outsourcing of any but the lowest skilled jobs to these countries is insane. Training these countries to compete against us in the latest technologies is insane. We need to be very selective in what we are going to teach other countries. Especially countries like China where the government will simply soak up all the GDP and direct it towards the military aimed at us.