Originally Posted by Guest

You bring up some very valid points but present them a little roughly. The manufacturing industry I worked in for 42 years died for some of the reasons you listed. The cost of employees and technology advances were the two biggest reasons. Although EPA did add some cost it was not a big hitter. Wages, healthcare, miscellaneous employee benefits, pensions, etc. make hiring employees the last thing any business wants to do. I share your views on EEO laws as I saw 1st hand HR being more concerned with gender, race, and even disabilities instead of the best qualified. That has given us the most diverse work force in world but not the best, IMO. This is very evident in the entire public sector. That said even if we had “the best” workforce it is too damn expensive to compete in world market. This is where technology come in replacing manpower in this country. Don’t know what the answer is but we need real leadership in this country soon and the current bunch, including Trump is not it.