The Atlantic has an interesting take on this, quite in line with your point about mid-level skills: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/01/making-

The Atlantic has an interesting take on this, quite in line with your point about mid-level skills: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/01/making-it-in-america/8844/ http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/01/making-i... the take-away is that American companies can be, and are, very competitive in some areas of manufacturing thanks to automation. But automation requires a relatively small number of these high- and mid-skilled workers to design things and operate machines. the layer below them - when, for various reasons, they are even still employed in the US - doesn't earn enough to make middle-class (they earn 10x Chinese workers, but that's not enough for a home even in low cost areas such as S. Carolina).