The US industry needs a big dose of healthy taxation. I don't mean treat it like a windfall to trip over, I mean sensible taxation where the excess goes into infrastructure like bridges, roads, rail and urban planning and development as well as rural planning and development.

Of course something along these lines would require restructuring how we tax foreign earnings (being more in line with the rest of the world) and regulate inversions to make them less attractive.

It's a daydream and it won't happen but that's what we should do with the money, rather than pay fairly compensated employees more, with the exception of their hourlies, but that's more up to the states to decide.

The gist is if we have extra earnings use them in a way that will create long term benefits for all citizens --who are living with infrastructure past its designed lifetime, in many cases.