the globalization phenomenon will eventually swing back when US national (and political) interests are threatened. Things will have to get very funky and I am not sure that the end-game will be very pleasant. I have no doubts in my mind that labor and labor generation will have to commence in the US similar to the mass reconstruction works under the New Deal. Even the stupid politicos know it is not a good idea to keep too many idle people around.
I am just about sick tired of the traitorous corporate apologist who call everyone "liberal", "leftist" or "anti-american" despite the fact that people who show these problems are true patriots as clearly want a better America for the masses not only for the few elite MBA wanna bees and 1 percent of the rich. We must have democracy NOT only a corporacy or theocracy where we are heading....
In case you don't know the system (Communism) is currently practiced in China and that's exactly where we're buying.
Amazingly Sir Alan Greenspan agrees with you: "The income gap between the rich and the rest of the US population has become so wide, and is growing so fast, that it might eventually threaten the stability of democratic capitalism itself." The Fed chief than added that the 80 percent of the workforce represented by nonsupervisory workers has recently seen little, if any, income growth at all. The top 20 percent of supervisory, salaried, and other workers has. http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0614/p01s03-usec.html?s=itm Of course he is blaming it on education instead of his own idiotic policies, tax cuts for the rich, outsourcing etc, as if 80% americans are all uneducated mexican laborers.
The Swiss have a very good system. You may want to call them "communist" but most people would laugh at you and lock you up. Their system is closed and self sufficient. and it is by all means a market system.
Sure there are troubles on the horizon (there always have been, often times more dire than those stated here..) I am of the school of thought that believes all ships rise with the rising tide. Every were I look I see opportunity. So much so I am constantly spreading myself to thin taking on to many ventures. I don't have enough time in the day to do everything that I want to do. Globalization is ripe with opportunity for an entrepreneur. The problem I see with many of the posters in this thread is that you have been taught to think as a worker, a cog in the corporate machine. Our education system has steered many in the wrong direction in my opinion. Our business schools teach us to get a job and most of our smartest kids strive to do just that. The true spirit of this country has been overlooked in this thread. The entrepreneurial spirit built this nation. Those of you that learn to step into this (the real game of business) you will see things as I and many other entrepreneurs do........ RIPE WITH OPPORTUNITY... For the rest of you good luck sucking your thumb and spending your days posting blurbs on threads like these predicting the end of days...........
In case you did not pay attention the thread is called "The US Labor Force...". It's not about super smart hotshots like you, it's about the remaining mere mortal 95% of the country who have jobs, professions, skills and who work for a living. You know, folks like your parents, family, friends, neighbors. They used to be known as the middle class and they used to live in a superpower country. That's probably still the case. The question the thread discusses is whether 20 years from now they are going to be dirt poor living in a 3rd world country. That entrepreneurial geniuses like you will do well goes without saying. PS One thing you're probably right about, 20 years from now we may indeed have the whole country of entrepreneurs selling each other insurance underwritten in Hong Kong and shining each other's shoes made in China.
dddooo - I might spin off a poll "What have multinational corporations ever done for you?" Granted there are those who become insiders and got very rich at Cisco, Google and MSFT, I would maintain that these incidents are still far and fewer between and as an ex software engineer I understand the randomness of getting on the inside. I was at tibco finance when they span off the second time as a Reuters company and the amount of ass-kissing, back-stabbing and stress. I was also at MSFT in 1986..... what amazes me is the minions of the educated people thinking that somehow verbal ass-kissing for corporations will make them rich too someday, only to wake up at a later stage in their life to smell the coffee, so to speak. For every Cisco cleaning lady turned mercedes owning rich person there are literary hundreds of nervous breakdowns and broken dreams in the entrepreneurial high tech world.
The foundation of this country was build on the backs of people that branched out, blazed their own trail, and saw opportunity where other saw vast untamed wilderness and scary uncertainty.... Unions, protectionism, fear of the unknown, and insecurity undermine what made and still to this day makes our Country great. Think outside your "blue box" and you will see the opportunity 2 billion more free market participants brings to a capitalist free market economy... Growth is the true driver of capitalism.... This country and its fundamental economic existence has always relied on growth and change.....
Thinking outside of the box... ...just curious... what exactly have you thought up as the venue for the 21st century America? I am curious of your "outside of the box" thinking. Just please don't come on with your latest MLM or prop trader idea.....