Asked in a newspaper interview whether he thought outsourcing of jobs to other countries made the U.S. economy strong, Snow replied, "It's one aspect of trade and there can't be any doubt about the fact that trade makes ... America strong."

Outsourcing only benefits the highest levels of management at companies, by letting them get work done for a few dollars per hour as opposed to paying an actual living wage (or a few dollars per day, as is still the case in a lot of offshore manufacturing factories). In the case of tech outsourcing, it's certainly true that the overseas workers are compensated handsomely with regards to the local cost of living. But manufacturing is still utilizing a lot of unfair labor practice in places like Central America and Indonesia. Almost certainly in China, too, but our "fact-finders" seem to be content to see a few token factories and praise China's progress on work conditions. Either way, no one in the U.S. could work for the same wages (so as to reasonably compete for their job to return to the U.S.) and actually survive.

Until someone decides to push a great big economic RESET button and make it possible for U.S. workers to support families on $2 an hour, there is no way to compete with outsourcing. Of course, wherever the rank-and-file workers are located, the company CEOs are still reaping U.S.-economy-sized bonuses for producing products cheaply.