F. George McDuffee wrote:
snip
Major contributing factor is the lack of contribution to the
US Social Security fund by manufacturing labor for products
consumed in the US because of off-shore sourcing.

Mindless stuff. Thats been a tiny part of the workforce for decades now.

This is another of the "off the books" costs that make
the initial cost cheap import goods so expensive in total.

Pig ignorant lie.
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Even worse --- because the employees and employers both pay about
7% of wages up to some cutoff point, when some company announces
they "saved" a billion dollars in labor costs, that's 140 million
that the Social Security Trust Fund *WON'T* get, even if the jobs
stay in the US. The SSTA loss will be lower but still
substantial if the company is including fringe benefits, etc. in
their projected "savings." This is in addition to the losses due
to off-shore labor produced goods. The loss of overtime pay also
appears to have had an impact.

USA is now projected to be the "Argentina" of the north in 2035
because of its uncontrolled federal budget and current account
trade deficits.

The Federal debt has long been dismissed as a major problem
because "we owe it to ourselves." Latest data shows this is no
longer the case.

Uncle George

One big difference between the U.S. and Argentina is that our debt is
in DOLLARS. When the big crunch comes, the U.S. Govt. can print money
to pay its debts. The hyperinflation resulting from this would also
reduce the debt in "real" dollars- A. McIntire