>Where do you live, Brad?
Near Chicago. NW Indiana to be exact. There is a steel mill about a mile away which used to employ 40,000 people, now about 5,000. Years ago the state built a 4 lane highway to handle all the mill workers arriving and leaving at shift change, now that highway is only lightly used. That's just one mill, they are all like that. Many have closed down. And the companies that serviced the mills, or fabricated steel have closed.
Pick a heavy industry and the story is the same - decline.
My cousin farms his family farm in Iowa. In the 1960's and 70's that farm supported a family of 4. Now my cousin works in a factory full time and the farm is a 'hobby farm' (his words) which produces income to be sure but not enough to support his family.
My point is that not everybody can go to collage. Not everybody can sell stuff, shuffle papers, program computers etc. We as a nation, have to at least provide the hope that there will be a variety of decent paying jobs available. Jobs that aren't one quarter earnings report away from going under. Hook or by crook you have to provide some hope for a decent future.
Other countries somehow manage to pay their workers a decent wage, have health, safety and environmental standards, have pensions and don't get called out for protectionism. I go back to that German electric toothbrush example: somehow they make a good product, ship it from Germany to the US, sell it to me on Amazon for $40 and still make a profit. We need to do that. Here in the US. Hook or by crook. Our corporations are not even trying to make those kind of jobs here anymore.
>tradespeople
I think the German's have done well with their apprentice programs.
