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I take it that you are probably 15-20 younger than I am, and likely don't remember the Carter years as a salaried worker might have memories from that time (1977-1981).

It looked pretty bleak and dismal back then too. Chrysler on strike, US taxpayers baled them out with loan guarantees, the auto industry making cars no one wanted and all looked like they have been designed by the politburo. First Chicago bank fails -- largest in US history to that point. 20% interest rates to squeeze out the inflation. Gas lines and cost of gas that nearly tripled in 4 years (imagine the impact $7 gas would do to us now).

I graduated college with 2 undergrad science degrees into an economy stuck a 10.8% unemployment. Double-dip recession 1980 and 1982. Jobs? What jobs? I worked temp jobs and played piano gigs to make it work back then.

But Reagan -- who lost the (R) nomination in 1976, and was being done in by the RINOs of that time actually beat the odds in 1980 and won convincingly. We flipped the Senate after 40 years of solid Dems. He was a visionary like none other I'd had the privilege of seeing in my life to that point and he disemboweled the Soviets without firing a shot while giving us the longest peace-time expansion on record.

Yes, America was down -- in Carter's words -- in "malaise" -- and Reagan changed the debate against great odds and subterfuge, co-opted his competition (GHWBush -- made him his VP "keep your friends close, your enemies closer"). Rockefeller's "monetarist" boys lost, and Reagan's "supply side" boys were proved right.

I am quite confident that what follows Obama will be a resurgence that makes the Reagan years look like timid by comparison. Now that the dreams of socialism have failed as miserably as they have, people are now paying attention in ways they haven't before and with means to spread the word in ways we didn't have 30 - 35 years ago.

But we beat the odds then, we will beat the odds again. The Chinese will over play their hand and the bubble that is China will deflate even as a resurgent US rises again with a new domestic industrial and energy policy that will be unleashed in the next string of (R) "Tea Party" driven victories in 2012.

The enviroweenies overplayed their hand with global warming (I've got 4' of snow in CT already where I live -- how about you?). The credibility of the EPA is toast. The MSM is unravel ling (bye bye MSNBC just for starters) and no one believes them or the NY Times anymore -- no one cares what the evening news says, we're all over a FoxNews. The Fed is Dead -- QE2 QE3 QE4 -- they are all getting investigated.

Ask yourself what happens when the truth about Obama surfaces -- when he can't get his name on all 50 state ballots because he can't produce a long form BC. And that's just the beginning. (R) victories were for the record books at the state level and we took the House in 2010. By that order we are further along bringing this thing around at this point now than we were before Reagan won. I am truly optimistic. You've even got your Gov. Christie. You should be more optimistic than me!

But where one's career is going -- when tax and energy policy changes radically and industry returns to these shores it won't look like the industry that left? The value of the industry that was off-shored just reached the real $-value level that it was always worth stripped of costly regulations and punitive tax structures.

America has a creative sense that the monopoly capitalist economies don't have. John Naisbitt's "Megatrends" and Alvin Toffler's "Third Wave" made many predictions which were bang on back in the late '70's and early '80's, and there will be new editions of Naisbitt and Toffler for this era. There already are in fact.

Consider Toffler's "40 for the Next 40" in the Manufacturing sphere looking towards the year 2050. You and I have a manufacturing component to what we do. Toffler predicts "PRODUCTION WILL INCREASINGLY BE REPLACED WITH ON-DEMAND, CUSTOM MANUFACTURING OF COMPLEX PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

 Small, agile companies will continue to bring personal attention to customers, allowing them to compete effectively with large manufacturers.

 Compact fabricators and raw material supplies will replace stockpiling repair parts for maintenance."

That describes where I am now. I am that complex service. Age-ism doesn't factor in when the pharma and biotech start ups I often advise are looking for the personal seasoned experience I bring clients, not just the cheap fresh out of school guy that's gotten him in trouble already (think of the Harvard MBA "wizards of smart" that got us into the 2008 financial debacle. Even the DeloitteTouche and the PriceWaterhouse outfits have had to restructure and re-invent themselves.)

Sure, we all need insurance and I have an HSA I fund for that purpose. I'm incorporated, and started in business with 4 kids in the house to feed -- none over the age of 12, and with my wife working also. And that was 15 years ago. Today, my wife is my business partner.

Being in your own business, selling what your competencies are with a personal touch is the value added that business and a new American industry will be looking for in the next in the next 40 years.

The guys working at Wal-Mart will still be retired seniors trying to stay busy doing something and those who didn't do anything to reposition and diversify what their skills sets are in order to be prepared to roll with the coming changes.

It just doesn't have to be that way for everybody - or for yourself if you start planning now.

FReegards!

I see what you’re saying; I don’t know if the comparison to Carter is fitting here in terms of job losses, though. These started before Obama, and neither party can stop it. China isn’t the only problem there; India and the Philippines, as well as a host of other Asian nations, are fundamentally changing how US companies operate (and who they hire). There is no comparison to the number of foreign cars (or goods in general) sold here in the late 1970s and today. Our real unemployment is more like 20% than 10%, and many of the “new” jobs don’t pay what is needed for young people to start off.

I am an absolute coward in terms of leaving my current job to start a business; that is difficult enough to do in good times, and temporarily out of the question due to reduced consumption by prospective clients/customers. The next year or so should give us a clearer idea of where we’re headed; unfortunately, I think more people will see socialism as a short-term answer without considering the long-term consequences.

As far as Gov. Christie goes, his election victory itself was an indication of how bad things have gotten here. He has to stop the flow of jobs and taxpayers from NJ to other STATES, not countries. The tax burdens in NJ were tolerated when well-paying jobs were available; now the people can’t pay them because their wages have stagnated (if they’re even still working) while the taxes continue to rise. The recent mass layoffs of municipal employees in NJ (the ones who were best equipped to pay $10K+ in property taxes), accompanied by our horrible snow removal (or lack of it) are just a taste of what it is going to be like living a more affordable, fiscally responsible Northeast, and it isn’t going to be pretty. Not only do individuals dislike it, but it makes it more difficult to do business here as well. On a somewhat un-related note, even when we had recent mild winters, there was a trend of business to move to areas where heating costs were lower or non-existent; this doesn’t work in our favor either.

I just don’t think we have any historical experience to which we compare our current situation. Even in the worst years of the Depression, our markets weren’t flooded by foreign goods the way they are now; we are also approaching the unemployment levels seen back then (25%)