[bert]

I'm not callous.

I don't know you or what you know or what you can do. You have some skills and knowledge that can be brought to bear. But perhaps not the skills you are accostumed to use to make a living. I worked as an executive/engineer in the construction industry for many years. In the last few years I have offered my services as an inspector of goods being exported. The job uses my knowledge of materials and world trade. It is not what I did for years and years. It is new, different and fun.

Offering services to business and industry is the source of many home businesses. There are lots of independant contractors offering all kinds of services.

You have a computer and some skills, put them to work from your home.

My comment was not meant to be callous or critical but to offer encouragement. You can make yourself a job.... if you decide you want to.

[contessa machiaveli]

bert, i'm not worried about myself or my family, we're doing just fine. i certainly appreciate your concern but you do seem like a cold SOB. there are some people who have tried to care for their families (and let's face it, not everyone can be as brilliant and accomplished as you) and find that 20 years of loyalty to an employer is meaningless as jobs are lost to third world hellholes.

[Willie Green]

You have a computer and some skills, put them to work from your home.

Yeah, there's plenty of growth opportunity in the high-tech telecom/dotbomb sector, yadda, yadda, yadda...
Maybe everybody can be retrained as web page designers. </sarcasm>

[iconoclast]

'Fess up ... you're Rush Limbaugh, aren't you?

[FormerLurker]

You can make yourself a job.... if you decide you want to.

Perhaps selling hotdogs in the parking lot of Home Depot, where many engineers are now working the aisles ?