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Toyota and other Japanese car manufacturers are tearing up U.S. auto manufacturers. And despite all the excuses from Ford and other companies, the real reason Toyota is winning is quite simple: Toyota makes better automobiles. I've owned Fords, Chevys, and Toyotas. There's no comparison in terms of quality, reliability and longevity of the vehicle. Toyota is simply engineered to higher quality standards. It has a far superior user interface (Ford still hasn't figured out how to make the turn signals actually stay on when the steering wheel is held off-center), better fuel economy (smart engine design) and better technology.

Why do you think Ford licensed hybrid vehicle technology from Toyota? It's because Toyota is ahead of the game. Ford is playing catch up while Toyota owns the intellectual property for hybrid systems that actually work.

And if you think the situation is interesting with automobiles, just wait until you see what's going to happen in the global robotics market: Japanese companies will outright dominate. In the future, sales of functional robots will far surpass that of automobiles. (Read my free downloadable ebook on emerging technologies at www.TruthPublishing.com to learn more.) And when the robot industry really gains steam, it's going to be Honda, Toyota and other Japanese companies owning the global market.

So what do we do to protect U.S. jobs in manufacturing industries? Forget about protectionism. What we need to do as a nation is invest in education so that we spur a new generation of smart, creative thinkers who can compete globally. It's a global market, after all, and if you're going to compete with programmers in India, engineers in Japan, and machine designers in Germany, you'd better get serious about national education reform. Because when a nation churns out high school graduates who can't even read, there's definitely economic trouble ahead… and, yes, plenty of children are being left behind.