We are the only world power. We have it pretty good, but you make it seem like we are shoved and locked in a high school locker.
I think you underestimate that all US companies compete globally, and often primarily.
By the way, see sugar and corn for unfair trade practices in the US.
You are 100% correct, we can compete globally, as we can manufacture stuff overseas. We can use the same disposable workforce that other countries use. And we do. We then use the other countries labor laws. We make batteries in India, we make Sheetrock, foods and kids toys in China, etc.
We can compete here too, but we have to manufacture stuff in third world countries. Corn and sugar prices are a statistical blip in the USA global trade imbalance.
One thing we cannot do, is create good jobs here for the masses. If the USA wants good jobs, we need manufacturing here. Of course, higher wages are only needed to stem deflation and to continue to have a better lifestyle. Countries can have massive political upheavals when there is a large income imbalance. Castro or Chavez would not ever have been heard of, if those countries did not have the income disparity that they did.
It could be that manufacturing in the USA has reached structural obsolescence. Our service industries have become the new manufacturing segment. They are no longer a stepping stone to higher wages, but a career in and of themselves. Being a fast food worker may very well become a new lifetime career here in the USA. Or janitorial services. Our upcoming demographics suggest that could indeed be the case.
The low paid (today) workers may well need to make as much as an engineer. Both work 40 hours, the worker in the fast food restaurant may even view their job as more difficult than an engineer. With outbreaks of eColi and salmonella, fast food workers hold the nations health in their hands. Engineering is becoming more of a commodity with the ability to import engineers and export engineering work.
In order to get the economy going, we need workers to have higher wages, and the only way is to have more higher paying jobs here. If you think the budget deficit is bad now, wait until the average wage drops even more.
Baby boomers are retiring, they are the nations highest paid workers. Three people making $33.3K a year (with 4 kids), pay a LOT less in taxes than one person making $100K.