In most high-tech fields today, the know-how needed to make a component, sub-assembly or finished product has progressed too far and too fast for the average worker to be able to propose any useful innovations.
For them, competing with American farmers on vast fields with high-tech machines, high-quality seed and high-value subsidies is like attacking a battleship with a machete.
The same children who worked the fields now attend college, work in high-tech maquiladoras, or serve the needs of the fast-growing supply, retail and tourist industries.