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I think lowering regulations and the tax burden on businesses so it's more cost effective to hire here would help more in the long run, rather than assuming everyone in our Country is capable of being an engineer.
The bulk of the regulations are safety and environmental. In other words, regulations that protect the safety and health of people
in the plant, and then the health and well being of people who are
downwind/downstream of the plant. Those regulations were hard-won by those people who worked in and lived downwind/downstream - because for the most part the companies weren't protecting those people on their own.
Interestingly, there has been a lot talk about corporate taxes in Canada due to our election. It turns out, in most studies, that at a certain point lowering corporate taxes does nothing to create jobs or create investment in infrastructure. All the money saved goes straight to - the executives (not even the shareholders.). Apparently Canada is below that "certain point" at 18% (so we don't need to drop our rates to 16.5% as one party is promising to do) to keep the corps. I don't know where the US is, but if you are at about 18%.... lowering corporate taxes only makes the execs richer.
There are a lot of other factors that corporations take into account besides tax rates on deciding where to locate. One of the big advantages that Canada has over the US is our health care system. Since we have universal health insurance, companies only have to "top up" health benefits (private rooms vs wards, etc) and not primary health coverage.
The biggest and best thing that we, the industrialized nations, can do is to help educate the workers in the developing world about the dangers they face through pollution and unsafe work environments. It is only when all workers are entitled to a safe workplace, and their families to a safe environment, that the playing field will be close to level.
In the meantime, I have no problems enacting "environmental" tariffs. Slap some costs on products coming into a relatively pollution-free country that help to account for the costs the manufacturer saved by locating in a jurisdiction with lax environmental standards. But that is different discussion.
