This is barely relevant to college debt. If anything, it contradicts the parent comment because it would be the white collar middle class resting on the "mudsill" of cheap global labor. The Internet also underestimates how hard labor jobs are on your body. It would have been even worse during the golden age of American manufacturing, when there were 10 times as many work related deaths.
When people imagine a world of we didn't outsource factory work, they assume it will be exactly like ours but where all unemployed English majors become unionized factory workers. In reality, any policy comes with trade offs. People like Steve Jobs would have entered blue collared work, like their parents. Consumer electronics would be significantly more expensive when made by domestic labor, and that means there would be less competition and innovation in this space.
When people imagine a world of we didn't outsource factory work, they assume it will be exactly like ours but where all unemployed English majors become unionized factory workers. In reality, any policy comes with trade offs. People like Steve Jobs would have entered blue collared work, like their parents. Consumer electronics would be significantly more expensive when made by domestic labor, and that means there would be less competition and innovation in this space.