[andy58-in-nh]

Tell old Paul to get a grip. We are no longer a manufacturing economy, and never will be again. Get over it. The service jobs that he derides are better paying than his statistics show, due to higher levels of deferred compensation, profit-sharing, and other benefits. His cost-of-living numbers are cooked, too - artificially inflated by a short-term spike in energy prices. That will pass, and soon.

Our "trade deficit" is meaningless in a world economy. All those dollars invested in foreign economies are busily creating huge middle classes in places like India and the Pacific Rim - gargantuan future markets for US-based services. Companies like Wal-Mart, Microsoft, and Intel are expanding into those markets, or soon will, and their consumer purchases will flow right back into the US economy, as American investors benefit from higher earnings in their 401(k)'s and IRA's, as well as from American-based jobs servicing foreign clients. Finally, the real estate market is overheated - in very distinct spots (S.Cal, Boston, Miami) - but that's not true of the country as a whole. Too much gloom and doom, when optimism is far more warranted.

[mr_hammer]

Keep drinking the kool-aid. Have you heard Alan G. state the threat the enormous trade deficit poses to our economy or did you miss that one.

[nyconse]

Nonsense, the service jobs he describes pay poorly. You would be lucky to even have health insurance offered. You would pay the entire premium yourself. I hope to God you are wrong because as a service oriented economy, the Amerixcan worker is toast.

[elbucko]

The service jobs that he derides are better paying than his statistics show, due to higher levels of deferred compensation, profit-sharing, and other benefits

Bwahahahahahahahahha!

That's a good one. Got any other Fairy Tales for the peanut gallery such as:

All those dollars invested in foreign economies are busily creating huge middle classes in places like India and the Pacific Rim - gargantuan future markets for US-based services.

Have you ever stopped to think that these "gargantuan future markets" won't be filled by expensive US-based services, but by lesser priced local-based services? If a market is smart enough to become "middle-class", why would it be dumb enough to overpay for American "services"? No, I didn't think so.

Third World, here we come!