Gen X and Yers if you want to preserve your jobs and have a chance for higher pay, establish an American management system that understands that if America keeps her high tech secrets, she keeps her high standard of living. The boomers blew it by accepting the notion of globalism that everything and everyone can be outsourced without thinking what is the impact on the people of the United States. I remember an old saying, if we give everything the unions want, we will have no trade, but if we give corporate America everything they want we will have no good paying jobs. I think we swung too much to corporate America (just look at what the Wall Street lead, government enablement did to our economy and finances). Somewhere between the two extreme viewpoints is the answer. I think that will be the challenge our new generation of leaders must resolve.
Just as an example, China and the emerging world is a good example where the stable concepts of socialism and the freedom of capitalism are mixed together that meets the unique characteristics of the country. These nations are emerging and prospering. Europe sticks to pure socialism and they stagnate, the US sticks to free for all capitalism and they just destroyed themselves with one gigantic financial bubble and believe it or not are trying to inflate an even larger one. Europe and the US style of economics is not the answer.
The United States in not Captilistic, it is Corportist. The small and middle sized businesses pay for the subsidizations of the Too Big Too Fails and Unionized Manufacturing. If we were a Capitalistic country we would have less big banks, more small banks. Not a Big 3, but the small 30 auto makers. People would have more skill sets, because being a local technical expert in your community would give you greater wealth and social standing. There would be an incentive to achieve, instead of dropping out of school and trying to be an NBA star for your one small chance. Being a Capatilist Republic should be our goal, but instead we are a Corportist Oligarchy. Don’t let the Oligarchs use Crony Capatilism and tell you that we now need Socialism. Socialism is just another scam that keeps the powers that be in power. Look at Al Gore for an example. He can go from a Socialist Environmentalist to a Corportist power player with his own Congressionally-backed firm depending on the audience and setting.