This is a very complicated subject. Many of us grew up in the 'good old days' of post WW II North America when we had a big edge of the rest of the world. WW II had devastated much of the industrial cap'y of Europe and Japan. Public education, esp in technology, seem to be lagging far behind in many Asian countries. Some of us remember when "Made in Japan" was a derogatory comment made about shoddy goods---cheap toys came from Japan. Now look at them and the rest of S-E Asia! It was foreign vehicles, esp from Japan, that shook N A makers out of their complacency.
We often hear about the 'knowledge economy" but we certainly don't have any monopoly on that either. This knowledge is very mobile with the internet.
Unions and gov'ts of whatever stripe are minor players, IMO, in this whole scenario.