[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.

[Havoc]

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.

You're talking about obselescence. My job isn't obsolete and isn't going to be. It was taken from me and given to a Mexican because they're Mexican and cheaper as a matter of course. The two things do not compare any more than trying to compare japanese outsourcing to US outsourcing. The Japanese aren't outsourcing to do an end run around their own system to produce goods and services for their own market. Nor are they violating their own constitution on multiple points to do so. It's a dishonest argument or rather I guess we should just call it a lie.. that's all deciet is.

[ARCADIA]

It is this creative destruction that makes us more and more competitive each year.

Layoffs are fine. However, for your theory to hold true we would have to see a correspondent expansion in other sectors (those highly competitive ones) and that has not materialized. No one cares if JAVA programers disappear in favor of XYZ programmers, the majority would simply move on to the more advanced language and some would remain to support the legacy systems. It is when you have no realistic job alternative that we have a problem, and that is where we are today.