I am not saying get rid of cheap labor in entirely. To turn around this society it needs to happen in small steps.
start with the basics again. Remember that if you work hard for something the results you EARN in the end are worth it. Get the young people in shape and show them that if they try harder, they will get more out of the efforts. They will start low on the totem poll, and work hard to gain a higher position. Now step two comes in, the older people in the company need to raise their game so the young kids dont take their job. Now the production from the company increased in quality TWICE. Keep compounding that up the chain of command. Sure there will be people getting fired once they find out they cant hack it anymore, but those people, again if they were smart and want to work hard, will start a competing company and produce a good product also. Everything around us is bred from competition, whats why our cars have more HP, handle better, look better, are safer… because there are some people smart enough and willing to put the effort towards a goal and accomplish it.
It has to happen in small steps. We can flip a switch and turn something around that has sooooo many small troublesome subsets of society. Drastic changes like, lowering taxes, raising taxes, furloughing employees, raising prices through the roof, lowering prices through the floor, laying off thousands at a time, hiring thousands at a time, bailing out big companies for desperate measures, giving up on big companies for desperate measures… all those ups and downs need to LEVEL out. Then once they stabilize you can start taking small steps again in the right directions.
Its all too easy for people to take the easy way out, or take short cuts to get to a small goal ahead of themselves and just cross their fingers that the path continues towards a greater goal. WE ALL ARE GUILTY OF THAT from time to time, but the people who WILL make a difference might take a short cut here or there but dont need to cross their fingers and hope for the best, they know they can continue on with the goals and they know they will reach them.