[snozolli]

Obviously there is some ludicrous threshold of pay where more people will decide to do some job

Ludicrous only from the perspective of the employer. Everyone wants something for nothing.

The fact is that regular Americans (i.e. not exploited, immigrant labor, or oppressed out-groups) used to do manual labor and manufacturing in the United States. They took pride in their labor. People haven't changed, the economics have.

As for your last paragraph, the oil fields have been able to meet their need for employees for the most part, and that ticks every one of your undesirable factors. So what gets workers there? Pay.

[chongli]

You used to be able to buy a nice house in the suburbs with car in the garage and a white picket fence, support a stay-at-home wife with three kids, put them all through college, and take annual vacations to Disneyland or the Caribbean, and cover the healthcare needs of the whole family, all on the salary of a high school educated factory worker. Now all that sounds impossible. You’d have to pay factory workers well into six figures for a lifestyle like that.

What happened? Cost disease [1]. All of the big ticket things in that lifestyle (except for the car) skyrocketed in price relative to inflation.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baumol_effect

[nradov]

That was never the reality for most factory workers. Usually the car was cramped with a single bathroom, the wife picked up some part-time work, most vacations were road trips to go camping, and not all the kids went to college. Inflation and growing income inequality are legitimate problems but let's not paint an unrealistic picture of "the good old days".

[selimthegrim]

Not a sprinter van clearly if it was cramped with a single bathroom.

[nradov]

Whoops too late to edit I meant house.

[ponector]

Obviously it was only for white people. And for sure not a regular factory worker who is doing simple tasks. Maybe floor manager...

[nradov]

Pay, plus a willingness to hire workers who might not be tolerated in other jobs due to background check issues or HR policy violations. (I am not claiming this is necessarily a bad thing.)