If American Airlines didn't have to pay half a billion dollars more in labor fees, they could sell their services at a discounted rate and wouldn't be broke.
The reason I WANT products to be made in other countries is because they are a lot cheaper.
There's a lot of research that says labor is actually only a small part of the cost in the products made overseas; the biggest costs are the components, and transport of those components to the factory. Supply chain is best when physically short. If the suppliers of screws, microchips, aluminum smelting, LCDs, etc, are all within 10 miles of the iPad plant, cost effectiveness is mostly coming from the supply chain, not the wages of the workers. Need to change a part? No problem; the other supplier is a block away.
Why does Foxconn work people 60-80 hours a week instead of just hiring more workers? Overhead: training, dorms, food, "benefits", etc. It's cheaper to work one person twice as hard than to hire two people to do the same work.
Business doesn't want to help the poor or the homeless: giving them concessions they ask for with the faith that they'll suddenly change their mind is not going to help the people already making minimum wage, and it's also not going to help the unemployed.
The Great Depression was a long time ago, so I don't doubt the lessons of pre-minimum wage America have been mostly lost.