As soon as a company gets big enough, they will seek out the lowest costs of production. That is why free trade (unfettered) makes no sense. Eventually, all the companies leave for China, Vietnam, etc. and sell in the US market. Eventually, we will become third world because of a lack of employment. The companies have no loyalty except to shareholders!
I just don't know if this is the case. I happen to go to an engineering school. And a good one at that. None of my graduating friends are having trouble getting jobs and in comparison they are hardly low paying. Georgia Tech which is almost entirely engineering has one of the highest starting salaries of any university. In fact we are nearly twice that of out in state neighbor UGA. We are hardly "uderemployed". All of the company reps that I have either personally talked to or have seen on cnbc are all saying the same thing. They woud hire americans if there were enough to go around. The empty positions require them to import technical labor. This isn't a case of the jobs leaving america. Its a case of america not being able to do the jobs.
Then why are our exporters and Germany's kicking butt? Because not every market is a commodity market. That cannot be emphasized enough. I don't believe your argument makes sense considering how well our exporters are doing globally. Let me ask a question. Tata (or China) will eventually build a $6,000 car for the US markets. Will they bury the Japanese and US manufacturers in the US? No, of course not. Not everyone wants a $6,000 car over here. In fact, quite the opposite. And, by the way, Ford and GM have been quite well overseas for the same reason: globally price on a car is just one part of the overall picture. Think of the irony of this: Detroit almost buried itself because of lack of quality, etc. And now global sales will probably save the American auto industry. This alone argues to the opposite of what you stated.
I work in IT for a very global company: we have offices and personnel all over the globe. Jobs are quite good right now throughout the industry from what I am seeing. Yes, there is outsourcing: we use a couple of Indian guys on our team as contractors. But we are also hiring state-side as well. The fear of all jobs going overseas just hasn't been born out. Imo, a very nice balance has already been achieved in the industry: I would call use of IT staff in India has been used to supplement not replace.
What do we export? Commodities. Lumber, corn, wheat, etc. Except for heavy machinery, practically ALL consumer products are made overseas. I defy you to find a TV, stereo, PC, shoes, clothing, made in the USA.
We are exporting scrap metal and grains. Ok, add CAT, Deere and Boeing, but the reality is our manufacturing base is disappearing very quickly.
I worked with IT a lot. ITs been a continuous downsizing and outsourcing game since Y2K, in there. All code is now written in India for $6 per hr and only 2 people are left in IT, for a 200 person facility. Consider yourselves lucky. Or perhaps your industry isn't in trouble yet?
I believe people are looking at the wrong statistics when trying to find out manufacturing growth. Politicians quote manufacturing jobs lost. This does not give an accurate view of current conditions because the manufacturing industry is constantly upgrading technology. This in turn requires less workers. I'm not saying that developing countries aren't getting producing more than they were a decade ago. I'm just trying to show that it has been extremely exaggerated. We produce 21% of the worlds goods. Does anyone know what peak production of world goods was? If someone does please post it for me. A chart through time would be best. Single years was the best i can find. http://www.dol.gov/asp/media/reports/chartbook/2007-06/chart5_8.htm http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2006/12/manufacturing_c.html