kane

I would disagree. Sure unions may be part of the problem but on some things we just can't compete. How can someone who goes to college to become an engineer and racks up 50K+ in debt doing so compete against someone in a third world country with a similar education and the ability to do the job for 10% of what the US based person would make? Sure, there are companies in the US that may hire these US based engineers, but many companies are now outsourcing those jobs as well because they can save a ton of money.

The days of only losing manual labor jobs to third world countries is coming to an end. Countries like India and China are educating their people and they are competing for the higher end jobs. The difference is because the cost of living is so much cheaper in these places (or they have government subsides) they can do the same job for significantly less money.

I agree we need to do something about our education system. We need to make college more affordable and we need to focus more on skills that will help people get good jobs and compete in the workplace, but unless the government does something to help protect these jobs (or at least give some kind of incentives to those companies keeping their jobs in this country) we will see more and more loss of these jobs. Unions are part of the problem, but the global economy and the high cost of living in the US (not to mention the tax burden) all play a major roll in this.