[XBob]

23 - "A newly minted engineer/programmer must get 3 years experience in the latest stuff to become really employable. However at that point your salary is no longer at the entry level and you begin to be subject to downsizing and offshoring. If the technology shifts, you don't get retrained, you are dumped and you have to start all over with the newbies' catch 22 of trying to get a job without the needed 3 years of experience so that you can gain experience needed to get a job. The repeated layoffs and large amounts of unpaid overtime greatly reduces one's actual pay to well below the rate they think they are getting. "

You got it (I am sure you learned from experience), there is now a true 'Catch 22' in our economy, and I feel sorry for the young people of today.

I see no way out of the downward spiral, but at least I recognize it for what it is, which many/most of the rabid unrestrained capitalists on these threads are too blind to see.

And to solve a problem, we must first recognize that it is a problem.

[ZeitgeistSurfer]

And to solve a problem, we must first recognize that it is a problem.

This problem will not be solved because we have changed so drastically as a nation. I was young in 1956 when Sputnik was launched and the Feds created a raft of science and engineering programs in response. That initiative was responsible for the explosion of scientific and technical creativity that happened over the next 40 years. So what is the response of the government today to the obvious threat of China, Russia, and India surpassing us in technical capability - to encourage that shift even more. That is why I say if you're in college now, go into the law and prepare for a life of torts if you want to make a good middle class living.