Really great.
It puts American farmers, industry, and service out of business. I mean after all, why not hire someone who will work for about sixty cents an hour? That person is glad to get the work and only has to pay a few hundred dollars for his house. Why pay an American who has a hundred, two-hundred, or more- thousand mortgage to pay, car payments, school loans, etc... 
Sometimes though, being in the world is a real bummer. One can only look forward to that new world we really are of.
Everytime my wife turns of the news I leave the room. It's getting to the point that all the negative stuff is getting depressing and I don't want to hear it from the media. As I get older my tolerance and stress levels gets worse and actually I get slightly paranoid. Michael Chrichton warned of the "fear" factor and what it is doing to the population and how the media pushes it. It makes us scared and wanting more protection from the government. The exact group that we don't want running our lives. Look up the fear factor and see what it is leading to.Tanj, don't beat your self up so much. There are a lot of mitigating issues to your situation that are absolutely not your fault. For instance, we are currently in the worst economic slump since the Great Depression.
<RANT>
I know what it's like to have one's older brothers and sisters of their generation sneering at one whilst enjoying all the benefits of their time. They all graduated ten years before me, with free tuition and other benefits not available when my time came up for College. They were able to get homes at one third the price I faced when shopping for my family. Thus, my financial burden was exponentially higher whilst raising my children. Also, I was at the lower levels when the changes came in my field and was therefore left behind twice. I retrained three times and still could'nt quite catch up. There are hundreds of thousands of people just like me in this country. Our older sibs and the previous generation enjoyed a better economy and have cashed out the same. The business community of this country OPENLY sold us out and exported the work we need to survive.
I remember reading the articles on the "new economy of the future," planned for this country back in the early eighties. They bubbled and gushed about the "Service Industry," that would be replacing the manufacturing base of the U.S. It scared the hell out of me back then. What happened was Outsourcing and the collapse of our economy.
Yeah, the new 'Global Economy' which promotes the destruction of the middle class and return of the world's population to the poverty levels and living conditions of the pre-twentieth century industrial level. After all, have a look at China: Bankrolled by American business, who found an economy begging for work and free of all the encumbrances of wage, pollution, safety, and quality control standards of doing business in the U.S.
Great thing this 'Global Economy.'
As long as people keep electing the same people (California is guilty of sending the two biggest thieves and scoundrels) to Congress this will continue. The great change the newspapers prattle on about is really only a very small percentage. The biggest scoundrels are still there.
</rant>
Sorry about unloading, but it really sets my shorts on fire when I hear the news sugar coating what has caused the current situation. Then I hear a perfectly good man like Tanj feeling bad because of something that... Here I go again.
Shutting up...:o
I just wish our success rate was as good with our children. Sadly, I've got a 50/50 ratio. Oh gosh, waitaminit, we already are in deep trouble! And so the comedy goes on...
So very true, Sis!
Rad, the thing that frustrates me most is the rampant gullibility of the general public. They seem to think that everything the media and government tells them is the absolute truth. If it wasn't for the almost comic stupidity of many elected officials, we would be in pretty deep.... um... trouble.
