I've traveled to a lot of customer sites throughout the Midwest and to a couple dozen of their offshore plants in Mexico and China. Some of those customers are

I've traveled to a lot of customer sites throughout the Midwest and to a couple dozen of their offshore plants in Mexico and China. Some of those customers are giant automotive OEMs and Tier 1 manufacturers with brand new glassy R&D labs with brand name equipment and Ivy League engineers making salaries well into the 6 figures. But some are tiny, self-taught, rural mom-and-pop outfits working from their garage with used equipment who might make more money as a line worker in the former shops. One critical thing to I've really come to experience in my travels is that all humans are basically the same. Those Ivy League engineers are no more intelligent or hard-working or creative than the guy in his garage or the site engineer from the Mexican or Chinese state university, instead it's often the opposite. If they're able to use the people, tools, and budget their position affords them, they can be more productive, but on the spot without those aids if anything they're less productive. The only differences are social connections, credentials, resources, the value multiplier from the volume that goes through their business, and the fraction of that value they're able to extract. The former three factors stack up against the engineer from Omaha. The last two mean that Facebook or Ford can easily afford those higher salaries while the Omaha garage cannot.