Reply #37: I think what we're seeing is the end of a golden age. Global

[Flatulo]

capitalism has premanently transformed the world so that work and the production of goods will always flow to the lowest labor market. Today, that is China. Tomorrow it may be somewhere else.

Did you kow that there is already an outsourcing crisis in coastal China? As prosperity and industialization caught up in the coastal cities, jobs are leaving for the inland and even lower labor rates. The people on the coast are outraged.

There doesn't seem to be any way to reverse, or even slow down this trend. Our standard of living will continue to decline until we're essentially a third-world contry.

Corporations are global, and they hold no fealty to any nation. The are beholden only to maximize profits and shareholder returns, and there is no consideration whatsover for the American citizenry.

Because of outsourcing, I lost a $135K job as a senior design engineer at Seagate after 30 years of service. I now work twice as hard for 1/2 the money at a sweatshop. And I'm very lucky to have that, bcause I'm 54 years old, and no one hires people my age. I go to work in excruciating pain every day becaue my insurance will not pay for anything other than cheap narcotics to mask the problems. Thankfully I made great money for many years and lived well within my means, so I'm in no danger of becoming homeless. I have a crappy little house that is paid off in full, and I buy absoutely nothing that I can't live without.

The party is over. There's no going back.