Reply #5: The big picture as I see it

[snot]

So long as the USA is richer than most of the rest of the world in everything except cheap labor, we will continue to buy or "import" cheap labor from other countries.

Once wages in other countries rise to match ours, this trend will cease.

The silver lining is that sooner or later, wages and work conditions in poorer countries should tend to rise. But I realize that's small comfort to many of us here.

You can erect artificial barriers to try to stop the flow, but as the I Ching indicates, dammed up water (or anything else) will always tend to overflow or find ways to leak, until the levels inside and out are equal.

There are lots of things that could and should be done to try to ease the shocks and pain of this transition, but I personally believe the process is somewhat inevitable.