I certainly agree that the US is way late in addressing these issues. The problem is that until a decade or two ago it was perfectly possible to have a very comfortable "middle class" life with little education and a well-paid blue collar job that brought healthcare with it. Those days have largely gone, but instead of addressing the fundamental issues, we've clung to the belief that those days can return. They really can't.

Totally agree, but nobody on either side seems to want to address that.

Supposition that there is an easy fix, there is not. I can think of a few possible ways things could go but no doubt reality will be different, so many variables.

Just remember, just because it say's Ford or GM doesn't mean made in the US.

What do GM, Ford etc pay on average for their line production hourly workers?

Looking around seems the top pay in Canada for GM is around 34/hr and takes a decade to reach that amount. (34 CAD$ = $25 US$ approx.)

They've only gone because American business has sold it's soul to cheap foreign labour and increasing the bottom line.

Union membership has been eroded, right to work laws passed by politicians in the pay of big business and there's something wrong when salaries have not kept up with the cost of living while the one percent continue to profit at everyone else's expense

We have rotten leaders, a Congress that exists only to engage in partisan warfare and the so called party of the middle class worker, the Democrats have been run by do nothing leaders like Nancy Pelosi who never did anything but run off at the mouth while the party lost it's base support because of a massive disgust at the way things are. Meanwhile Hillary ran her campaign on female empowerment surrounded by a bunch of PC liberals who had completely lost the plot. Small wonder that Trump beat her so easily.

I think next time I'll vote for the Flat Earth Progressive Party

I would be interested on what percentage of the jobs lost are from technological change or from companies sourcing abroad and not just for cheaper labor- higher taxes, medical insurance costs and cost of complying with regulations, non- supportive government, all factors to consider as well.

In the PC world of today one can say something completely true, yet is considered unacceptable because someone may construe it differently. Must make sociology classes in university extremely problematic, or anthropology class, or even any class for that matter.

I have employed Mexicans in Mexico and in the United States, and in my experience they are good workers and yes can be very loyal. I admit hard for me to understand why such an observation is considered unacceptable.

Jesus H Christ

You can't see how ridiculously patronising that statement is? Did you pat them on the head when you told them how proud of them you were?

Maybe I shouldn't have told my African-American buddy at the gym the other day that he played a great game when he and his team beat us 45 to 30. Lucky for me he didn't take it the wrong way otherwise he might just have beaten the crap out of me for being patronizing and insensitive to suggest that because he happens to be black basketball comes naturally to him.

Really you have to laugh at these white people who when they happen to meet someone of a different color they start jumping around like chickens on a hot plate, their knickers full of poop, scared to death in case they might say something that could be construed as racist. It's just pathetic

Word to the wise, most rational people are going to switch off after reading an opener like this ...

He was Jewish and his middle initial wasn't H. Step carefully in case adding the H might be construed as being racist

A) Jewish isn't a race.
B) How do you know what his middle initial was? It might have been Hiram, for all you know.
C) This is all conjecture anyway, I know.

It would probably take a Mexican worker on an assembly line around double that time to reach the equivalent of $34 Can an hour

You're right. He was most probably ethnically middle eastern but of the Jewish or Hebrew religion. It could have been Jesus Hebrew Christ. Oh hell here I go again being nasty and insensitive not to mention patronizing. I'm off to bed before I land myself in the shit any further

You're not in any shit. Just don't worry so much about Jesus H.W. Christ. It's not his fault his parents named him after a swear word.