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It's not that anything new is happening in the American economy. It's just happening much quicker, so we feel it now. And the velocity will only increase.

I saw this happen in my first career. The phototypesetting industry gave way to the PC/Mac revolution, and the one-man business I had nurtured with such care went bust almost literally overnight. I was able to jockey the few computer skills I had as a typesetter into a position in the IT business (networking). A generation before, hot-metal typesetters had seen their careers lost to the cold type process. Before that, hand-set type lost out to hot metal. It's a never-ending process, and there's little sense in railing about the injustices of life.

Many would argue We should somehow protect the typesetting industry. Then you could pass on obsolete skills to your children. :-)

Those who are railing about sending our jobs overseas simply do not understand the revolution we are in the middle of. "Globalization" has many shades of meaning, depending on who is ranting at the moment. But the root phenomenon is technological; technology (computer and broadband) is driving everything we are seeing. The debate at the political level is a reflection of the anguish at the grassroots level which is, in turn, a simple effect of the ongoing information revolution, which will not peak.

"Globalization" is inevitable. It cannot be stopped. It is, at the root, science in the service of wealth, which is itself just a symbol for comfort. This is not a moral position, nor a political position. It is simply an observation. Technological advance can be paused, but it cannot be arrested.

I do note that the picture of the world system at the end of time in the Revelation of St. John is of a single system, based on trade and commerce, which has subsumed all other values, including all political divisions. This one world system traffics in every thing, including "men's souls".

You don't have to be an evangelical prophecy loon to observe the teleological force of the information revolution is to subsume EVERYTHING under the power of technology-seeking-wealth.

It will happen. It is happening. It is Man, imposing the condition of his heart onto his external world, inexorably, over the course of 5,000 years, and it was observable in seed form in Palestine in 30 A.D.

End of sermon. Resume your tired perennial debates.

"It's a never-ending process, and there's little sense in railing about the injustices of life."

Amen. Although some people like to rail because it makes them feel better. But the only thing that will make their situation better is the willingness to adapt and overcome the changes that make up life in the modern world.

Unless, of course, someone wants to choose a line of work that will be completely insulated from changes brought about by innovation and technology...wonder if any of those exist anymore...