Excellent summary from Kevin.
The fundamental issue is that we need to compete, and that's in all dimensions. As a country we place great value on open markets, competition, and individuals working hard to advance themselves. Well, that's exactly what we are facing, and exactly what the team from India is doing.
If a person has limited skills, yet wants a US TV lifestyle, they are going to be (already are) in trouble because as you described, there are lots and lots of people in the world with similar skills who are trying to lift themselves up from a much lower lifestyle starting point. They have a much lower cost of living, and much more modest spending desires, so can advance on a much lower wage. Net result, unskilled and semi skilled jobs flood out of the US in an open market system. So what do you do?
You can close the gates to stop the flood, abandoning the much loved open market system. That's what tariffs and various other protectionist policies do. But it's really saying that we like the open market system when we are on the winning side, but not when we are on the losing side. There will always be some degree of this, but in the long run it's hiding from the problem, which only gives it time to become worse and harder to solve.
Now as you look at more skilled jobs, and companies with defensible intellectual property, you have something that you can hold on to. We have business segments like this, but growing that means continuing to elevate the skill level of the population, and the superiority of produced products. But that leads us into education, which by all measures is a giant failure in the US. It's just not valued, and often even vilified. With that sentiment, it's no wonder we are where we are. And so goes Rome.
Now I'm depressed. Can we talk about anchors? And about how many micron's my fuel filters should be?
Yes the problem is really under education, and not just college education, skills based education. Americans in general are lazy, where our world competition seems to value education.
Here is another true story...
I worked as part of a team of electronics professionals maintaining the control system for the largest oilfield in North America.
I saw that technology was changing from TDM digital communications to Ethernet based communications. My world was changing and I felt the need to keep up.
What I needed was an education update and at my own expense I purchased course material, and attended online classes on The Cisco equipment that was quickly replacing the older gear we were using.
This cost me almost $10,000 and took all the "free time" I could get at work, and a lot of my off work time as well for over a year. Eventually I earned my CISCO Certified Network Professional certification, which qualified me to maintain the enterprise class network we were upgrading to.
My first level manager liked my new skill set and decided to purchase the same training I had paid for myself for the rest of the team.
A year later ZERO of them had completed even the most basic course, or earned even a junior level Cisco certification.
Yet we had by then over 5,000 Cisco Routers and switches to maintain.
I have found that same general behavior to be prevalent in American workers. They are not willing to do anything to improve their skills to make them marketable.
Our local dealership had a recent advertisement that was "if you are a certified diesel mechanic and are not making six figures, give us a call". Go to the dealership and it's a three week wait to get your truck worked on.
Why??? A shortage of diesel mechanics. Yet there is a trade tech in Seward that offers diesel mechanic certifications, and a student loan program in Alaska that will loan enough to cover the costs including room and board for the dorm.
