Why Aren't those jobs coming back?

Last night I heard our President of Change, comment about the concern of a woman at one of his town hall meetings. The woman asked, What about all those outsourced jobs. Can't we do something about that? I thought he was rather condescending in his reply. Those jobs will probably never be back, but that's ok. As if the jobs that have left were drone work that should be performed by some lesser beings. IBM announced they were laying off at least 9000 people from their manufacturing section. Cars, televisions, appliances, garments, shoes and the list of lost jobs goes on and on. Why?
He says they are just following the flow of the markets to other countries where they can be made more cheaply. So we are still being led by the notion that if it doesn't pay enough profit to include the cost of fair labor and the other costs involved in producing a safe quality product then it just can't be produced here. If the cost of the labor (wages, health care, etc. or the oversight of the manufacturer (inspection and product safety) are too onerous then, what else can we expect...companies will do the only thing they can to survive. Leave. Seek cheaper labor markets and less oversight. As if there is no other possible solution. Maybe remove some of the health care burdens from companies by creating a different health care system. Maybe toning down our expectations of acceptable profits. Since when have we run out of ideas? As long as this is the accepted attitude from business and politicians, things will stay the same.
Am I the only American who is willing to pay a higher price for a product which includes a fair price for labor, and assurance of product quality and safety? I don't think so. I think all the people who have lost those jobs understand the point. I have always felt that every product we buy should list the breakdown of the cost of the item. 1) The percentage that goes to the raw materials the product is made of and where those materials were obtained. 2) the cost of labor 3)the cost of packaging, quality control etc. and finally the profit to the company. Then maybe I would only be able to afford one car, one tv, and so on. That's fair. I could deal with that. And I think plenty of other people could too. But we are told that the American people want cheap products. They are willing to lose their jobs, fight wars to obtain cheap or dwindling resources, lose tax bases that could assure quality education and a well maintained infrastructure... all to be able to satisfy an insatiable need to consume.
What I heard Obama say last night was, don't be silly folks, we can't afford to pay people a decent wage, produce quality products, support a strong manufacturing base. That would be quite a change from the present course. We can't do that. That would be protectionism. That would be protecting our citizens from job loss. Maintaining a solid base of people who actually produce things. That would be putting people ahead of profit. No, No. That just can't work. We'll just dismantle all our manufacturing and depend on buying everything from someone else. There's a good national defense stance. After all, the world loves and respects us so.
Well, I am ready to pay more. I am ready to consume less. I am ready for a government that "protects" it's citizens from unemployment. I am ready for a government that assures safety and is willing to pay for it. I am ready for a government that takes care of it's own house and doesn't expect constant growth but rather concentrates on the well being of all it's citizens. A strong and well balanced country needs scientists, scholars, inventors, teachers, producers, artists etc.
And don't even get me going on the topic of Thomas Friedman and his "The World is Flat" map of tomorrow. At least I like Obama. I have to get this in here though or I will explode. The other day I heard Mr. Friedman interviewed on NPR. A caller challanged his The World is Flat Philosophy. He would not speak to the callers argument, but after much meandering around the subject ended with the idea of a Camp David summit of Obama and about 180 of the brightest and best minds. He proposed they (and I swear, this is how he put it) should stay up on the mountain until they figured out the solutions and then they could come down and tell the people. A more out of touch suggestion hasn't been proposed openly in this country since the gilded age. But there seem to be plenty of Friedman's and Cheney's around who have their own ideas of how to run things.