Something that we miss is how much innovation has been lost in the US due to offshoring of jobs to low wage nations . Had the jobs remained in the US , there would have been greater technological innovation to reduce the wage expenses , certainly , but the jobs would have gone away more slowly rather than a sudden layoff which was a shock to many communities overnight . The job training that was promised from the proNAFTA people both Democrats and Republicans didn ' t happen as promised . Also of note is with the further automation of jobs , not all jobs are lost . Those who are not yet of retirement age can be retrained for new jobs at the plant . Someone has to grease the robots , for example . Adidas is bringing a shoe factory to the US sometime next year IIRC . They plan to make something like 50 , 000 shoes a year with roughly 150 employees . It ' s going to be highly automated . While it used to take , say , 500 employees to make 50 , 000 shoes a year , at least not all 500 jobs are lost the US , even with automation with this example , keeps 150 jobs . What people have a problem with is the sudden loss of jobs to low wage nations coupled with the stagnated innovation in the US . The layoffs were a shock to communities and it shows in what ' s happened to many communities in the US from opioid abuse to run down town centers to mortality due to drug abuse and suicide . As a nation we really let a lot of people down by not helping them transition from those layoffs .