Because of globalization and international trade, you really need to focus on innovation to be truly successful. We have no choice in the matter: We're in the value-added and knowledge economy. Given the human resources required to make this sort of thing, one might surmise that it doesn't cost much. That's really very shortsighted. Yet we know full well what things cost when we let our guard down. So we really need to focus on the value-added side.
I'm glad to know that the graduation rate has risen substantially in Canada over recent years. However, this increase is due to the fact that Asian students come to Canada to study. They then go home and take the knowledge they have acquired here with them. China and India will not be the post-Second-World-War Japan, where things played out over almost 40 years. Today, Toyota is leading the pack. China will surge ahead much more quickly as far as training, development and innovation is concerned.
We are diving head first into a fast-paced race to be innovative and creative. This will always be the case. We will never have the luxury of lingering and thinking that we have plenty of time before our competitors outdo us. The race to be innovative will surge ahead and will not stop for anybody. At the end of the day, the major difference will be one of wage and environmental conditions. The climate will be more human and more organic than simply one focused on innovation and creation.
So what will we do? Companies will quite simply invest elsewhere. They'll get richer, and workers here will get poorer. It's not necessarily true when you say that you are helping people here by producing abroad.