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348 - "Indeed. [You have had | are having] a really cool, interesting life. A challenging life, yes, but I admire your ability to grow and change and adapt."

Thankyou. And it is why this particular argument means so much to me - I've been through it, many times. And it's not easy. And I saw a lot of families destroyed, capabilites and lives lost in the disasters that followed. And I was one of the young ones, with brains and talent to change. I saw many productive but less fortunate succomb and die, essentially in poverty and from broken hearts.

I saw something similar happen in Houston, during the oil crash in the 80's, as we sealed up oil wells, and shut down capacity, and forclosed on thousands - 3500 housing forclosures a month. And not fancy houses, just normal middle class housing.

But the most important time, was the first time, and it is why we can't get the shuttle launched now.

I am from Cape Canaveral. When I grew up, we had lots of work, launching missiles of various types, and then the race to the moon. Well, when we got to the moon, suddenly, this stopped, they laid off almost everybody, and shut down nearly everything. No jobs, no construction jobs, no engineering jobs, no missile jobs. NO JOBS, except a few. School after school closed, as families with children left to go somewhere where there was some work.

What happened - well, those great men, who got us to the moon, couldn't find a job pumping gas. For 8 years, there was NO work. Forclosures, bankruptsy, sickness, death followed the rack and ruin. Retrain? for what - going to Saturn? It was personal and financial disaster for tens of thousands.

The geniuses and training left, and never came back. All that amazing talent, lost, down the drain. And our space program has never recovered. And I saw the same thing happen in other industries, particularly oil. (That's why we import so much of our oil).

That's what Todd'sNoPatriot keeps arguing for.

What is happening now, there is no recovery. Perhaps in the next century, when we are a chinese colony, governed by outsourced Indians, and populated by Mexicans living in poverty.