Where have all the jobs gone?  I realize we can not hope to compete with slave labor of France, but yesterday at work I heard something that gave me pause to think.
A woman I was talking to informed me that after 15 years of working at her place she was making over $22 an hour.  Wow, I thought she must be a highly skilled person to make that kind of money.  So I asked her what she did for a living?  Was she an underwater demo expert, was she a biochemist?  No, she said she worked on the line at John Deeres Tractor Factory.  She also informed me that she got profit sharing.  She said it was way down.  She said when she started she use to get checks of $6000.00 a couple times a year.  Now they are only $100.00 and some times only $0. Now I know that John Deere is recognized the world over as the best tractor made.  So why can they not make a profit?  Is $22 an hour too much to pay a good employee to put the nut on the bolt?  I say yes.  She is being paid $880.00 a week or $45,760 a year plus benefits to put nuts on bolts.  Why does the management go to robots?  Now we know why.  Why do they move their company down to Mexico?  An awesome wage is 2 or 3 dollars an hour.  John Deere is the place to work for.  I talked to another person.  He retired at 55 making $55,000 a year.  What did he do?  Security.  Once he quit though John Deere got rid of his position.  They hired an outside contractor to do the work?  Cost?  6 to 7 dollars an hour.  Yet Deeres will be paying this man for his retirement for the next 45 to 50 years of retirement.  So the price of their tractor has to reflect all of this.  When I went shopping for a tractor lawn mower, I looked at several brands.  Most were around $1,000 up to $3,000 dollars except one, yep, you guessed it, the John Deere tractor  a whopping $10,000 dollars +.  Now my question is why?  Am I paying for an American product that is soooooooo superior to all other tractors that they will out last them by a hundred years?  Would I have to buy 10 of the $1000 tractors before the Deere ran out?  I saw no information saying that.  So what am I paying for? I am paying to buy American.  That’s right I am paying 10x the amount to help secure that woman’s job, that man’s retirement.  I have shopped around and I find that American products are some of the best in the world.  However they are also the most expensive too.  That kills me.  I have a limited income.  The people in the other countries who make the products Joe Smith bought; they cannot afford American products either. So who is buying American products?  Why, the Americans that are making $22.00 an hour.