I think too many people here trust their political party too much, especially the Right, who buys into the bumper sticker logic that lower taxes and fewer regulations will increase solid jobs, with livable wages.
The good jobs that this country saw during the postwar years were a historical anomaly based on the destruction which befell our competitors during WWII.
Globalization and automatization have displaced the old American Middle Class, which class, because of Unions and the New Deal, was the highest paid in history. In fact, American Labor was so well compensated that the father could support the entire family on just his wage. The wage structure of the postwar American middle class was destroyed so big business could make higher profits through cheap 3rd world labor. Any jobs which return to the USA will NOT be the old livable middle class wage - they will be 3rd world wages.
People keep saying "where are the jobs" as if they think we can go back to the wage structure of the 1950's when most Americans made enough money to thrive and send their children to school. That wage structure was based on a historical anomaly: 1) our competitors were destroyed by the war so we were manufacturer to the world, and 2) government tax policy made sure that hard working Americans participated fully in economic growth, that is, the Government didn't allow a small group of wealthy individuals and corporations pocket all the gains of economic growth - money was funneled down to things like education, health care, and affordable cost of living for the masses. This is why America had the most well educated citizenry in the 50s; this is before the wealthy, using the Republican party, convinced America that educating our children was socialism.
The kind of solid jobs that support a vibrant middle class are not coming back. As long as our global competitors will work for pennies, there is no incentive to bring back livable wages to America. We can only bring back jobs for labor markets willing to work for dog food.
Obama can't bring good jobs back. Nor can Romney.
The only people who believe that the jobs will come back are those who listen to Talk Radio. They're called Republicans and they believe that their guy can bring back the glory days. Those people are casualties of government propaganda. They believe too deeply in the power of Washington.
The game is over. Americans will have to learn to live with less - a lot less.
(Attention morons: for the last 30 years jobs have come from credit cards. We replaced our manufacturing plants with shopping malls, then we handed out Master Cards and Visas so people could go on a 30 year debt orgy. When our credit cards got too full, we actually turned our homes into ATMs. Morning in America was actually a slight of hand. It created economic growth purely from credit based consumption)
