As a maintenance person myself, I have this conversation all the time in my office when I get with the planning guys and our managers to pick out an MRO.
The sad state is this: american repair stations do lousy work. And they are more expensive. The fact that the MRO use mexicans or usually, Salvadorans in sheet metal shops - makes no difference in quality. (usually they are really great)
When Ive been laid off the two majors I worked at, I "contracted". That is when the labor pool of mx workers are like migrants themselves, going from one repair station to the next until that C-check is over and there isnt another one behind it. And worse, the quality is bad because the pay is subpar- and worse than that and most impactful, the treatment is horrendous!
You have to believe me, you could be the hero that fixes everything the first time, but the day you **** up just once, youre fired. And I dont mean major foulup, just break something, or dont do it right the first time requiring more time "put on that task card" and youre out. I have literally seen workers show up on a job that they got sent to in Mobile, only to find that it was cancelled. You foot your own nickel to get there and you leave empty handed. But I digress....
The best work we get is out of Singapore and Haeco (in HKG), even TAECO (in xiamen) and they are also the least expensive. We also use KLM.
The tragedy is that Boeing did NOT consider performing 747-400 freighter conversions in the US like Kansas or Missouri where they used to, they went directly to TAECO. So Boeing is in fact NOT investing in America.
From my point of view, the safety and lower incident rates are due simply to technology and manufacturing. I've worked both Boeing and airbus, and theyre built well, I dont think there are many jobs a mechanic could foul up. So I feel no qualms about getting on any airplane. It flew in, it'll fly out.
As for the economic discussion going on here, one poster was right: China isnt buying Boeings because it wants to, it does it because thats all we make they need. In fact when they try to buy Airbus, Pres. BUSH literally had to strong arm one airline to split its order halfway between Boeing and Airbus.
The whole idea of trickle down economics is bunk because the rich who get so obscenely rich dont really spend that much more than the average american to make an impact on the worker. If I lost my job today, I wouldnt find another 50k a year job, I'd wind up working at Home Depot for 28k.
Ironically, its funny how airline pilots who made upwards of 200k a year for decades are talking about the dwindling middle class.