[widebody911]

So, any guesses on where the economy is going now that the war is over?

A co-worker did an LDAP search today here @ HP and found 849 new entries with the flag showing the RIF flag (~1300 total).

I was reading some dreck a couple days ago where some economist was explaining some economic indicator or another and what it meant.

I have a simpler metric. The economy will turn around when the jobs come back. Period. What little we have left of an economy has been leeched out of mortgage refis, money-losing financing deals, and the accumulation of consumer debt. If the other shoe drops before the jobs start coming back, it's going to get real ugly, real fast.

I've heard people blame the massive outsourcing on the 'wage inflation' of the 90's. Yes, salaries in some fields went up, although the rate of executive compensation outstripped even that. OTOH, lower level jobs that didn't pay that much to start with, like customer service, phone support, and clerical-type stuff are also going over.

I don't think everything should be outsourced just because it can. Our economy depends on the fact that employees of one company are the customers of another. It's shortsighted to think that eliminating all of the employees won't have an adverse affect on the big picture. (but it's "for the shareholders!")

I think we'll look back with regret at the major outsourcing of today just as US companies looked on with regret at the rise of the Asian economic empire in the 80's. *We* gave them the materials and skills to slaughter us in manufacturing. Now we're handing them the rest. Economically, it's the same as funnelling weapons to various middle-east countries in the 80's - it made sense at the time, but nobody thought about the long-term consequences. A small minority benefits from it now, and is financially insulated from the eventual negative outcome.