[ARCADIA]

You tend to run a little fast, so lets take it one step at a time. No one is suggesting that we preserve telephone operators positions, IT jobs, or anything else. But, a prudent economy would ensure that we are constantly building and upgrading our jobs base (IE individual opportunities). That means actively promoting the development of a healthy jobs inventory through incentives, trade barriers, and outright capital manipulation if need be.

If you want people to buy into a system; then you have to give them the means to participate in it. If that is no longer possible; because all labor has to conform to a global rate, then we are going to have a real problem here, because the cost of living in the US is so much higher. Once the economic and political avenues are closed, people are going to start taking it to the streets. Whistling in the dark about the theoretical benefits of a non-existent global market might give you comfort; but, it also ignores the problem.

[Southack]

"That means actively promoting the development of a healthy jobs inventory through incentives, trade barriers, and outright capital manipulation if need be."

The overall job climate in the U.S. is fine, however, at any given time you are *always* going to have layoffs in a competitive economy.

It is this creative destruction that makes us more and more competitive each year. The U.S. has less than 5% of the world's population, for instance, but produces 30% of all goods and services.

And it can do this because the U.S. doesn't "protect" old phone operators jobs from being replaced by computers. Ditto for Java programmers being replaced by HTML software design programs, or system administrators from network automation software.