This is the one place I can count on to have members at least as old as I am..

Does anyone remember the "cheap imports from Japan" rallying cry in the 60s and 70s?

Remember when it became Korea?

Does it sound the same as how the cry now goes up about China?

I saw a series of reports called "The People's Republic of Capitalism" on Discovery a couple of years ago. You will NEVER hear me moan about Chinese workers after seeing what they came from and are going towards.

Yes, times are tough here, but I'm reminded of an argument a couple of decades ago about whether or not an auto-worker should feel entitled to get the then-princely sum of $25/hour to put a left door handle on a Chevy. You DO have to evolve.

We got complacent. Because we were the only industrialized society left standing in 1945 we got fat, happy and lazy as the world had only us to go to for finished goods. We didn't have to compete - and it's competition that made us the best in the world.

Now we have to compete - and sometimes the deck is stacked against us. But as my best friend says "if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys". Some companies are discovering that those customer service reps that they outsorced to India are giving their companies VERY bad reputations.

I lost my job and had no prospects in 2004. I decided to put my nose back to the grindstone and, at my own expense (borrowed but now paid), got myself re-trained and my skills updated (cost me over $20,000). Now my career is on MUCH better footing and I'm remembering to keep teaching myself new things.

So we decided to buy cheap CD players form China that break down in a year or two. We paid peanuts. We got monkeys.

There's more here than simple slogans and platitudes can cover.