The One Question that will stump ALL your Republican friends...

[badtoworse]

42. The short answer is none the way the economy is structured

Companies compete for investment capital and a company that did what you suggest would see lower returns and the value of their shares would plummet. The company might not even survive. Management has a fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders to protect and try to grow their investment, so they could not do what you suggest. You talk about companies as if they are separate and apart from the shareholders with discretion to ignore them. The shareholders OWN the company and it's up to them whether they want to accept lower returns or greater risk with their investment.

The environment we had three decades ago is gone forever and there is no way that anyone can bring it back. Look at what happened over the same period of time in the economies that have the jobs that used to be ours. They boomed. Why? They were willing and able to provide the same goods and services that we were at lower cost. We now operate in a global marketplace. The value of goods and services, and the labor needed to produce them is determined in the world market, not just the US and I don't know how to change that.

I look at where things are made and pay a premium for American made products when I can find them (which isn't very often.) A better approach might be to focus on getting consumers to demand more (higher quality?) American made products.