Like it or not, the world is getting smaller. Distances between countries is shrinking every day. Faster transportation and instant world wide communications on the internet have made everyone in the world neighbors. Isolationism just doesn't work anymore. We must compete with other countries in an open market. How can we compete with cheap labor in foreign counties?

The main way we compete is to index our tariff structure on imports to the wage scales for manufacturing of similar products here. This will bring the cost of imported goods up to that which is produced domestically. An added benefit would be to reduce the advantages of American businesses taking their manufacturing to foreign countries to take advantage of cheaper labor. It could also encourage other countries to pay realistic wages to their workers. A similar tax on services outside our borders, such as outsourcing of call centers could be devised.

A system of realistic comparison between the wages of one country to the same standard in our country would provide a means of assuring the original cost of each item is competitive no matter where it was made.