[AndyJackson]

Much as I hate to say it, Agamemnon does have a point, in that bellyaching here on FR does not solve the problem.... Agamemnon has a way of expressing this in a sufficiently obnoxious way that you're too busy wanting to punch him out to examinewhat he's saying.

My disagreement with Agamemnon has to do with his own political obtuseness. It is kind of an old time calvinist viewpoint that bad things happen to people because their souls are damned. He may be theologically or morally, or perhaps even - perhaps - economically correct that these folks deserve to lose their jobs because they won't go out and start their own successful companies. That position will not win Bush the next election, however.

[RLK]

My disagreement with Agamemnon has to do with his own political
obtuseness. He believes, or asserts, that the economic world runs on shallow platitudes and cliches and looks not beneath the surface of things. Consequently, he operates within an irrelevant analytical system.

[Lazamataz]

He may be theologically or morally, or perhaps even - perhaps - economically correct that these folks deserve to lose their jobs because they won't go out and start their own successful companies.

I am not at all convinced that America, or any other country, can be a country of CEO's.

[SauronOfMordor]

It is kind of an old time calvinist viewpoint that bad things happen to people because their souls are damned.

The viewpoint IS useful, however. It serves to get people to get off their butts and try their hardest to become successful, to demonstrate that they are of the "elect" rather than the damned.

Getting somebody to develop an attitude of "You tellin' me I'm a loser? Well [bleep] you, MoFo! I'LL show YOU who's the loser!" can be the most productive approach you can take to kick somebody out of a depressive funk.