I agree about the cellphone thing though. I’d never get a phone contract.

Now that we have that issue out of the way, it’s time to get to the real meat of the situation. Like I said, I think a great many Americans share your beliefs, and that is EXACTLY where we fail. The day we turn on each other is the day we falter, and that is exactly what is happening. The last time it happened we went to war with each other. Your comments are the comments of a person who is so completely wrapped up in your own existence that you could give a sh!t about another American who is different from you in any way. And that is what got us here. And that is what I try to get other Americans to see in themselves and each other.

I picked out the story of the programmer because that’s one I heard recently, my story could just as easily have been about you. Are third world countries going to compete with us? Of course they are. Could our government have done more to ease the transition rather than suddenly shattering the lives of so many who thought they were doing right for themselves and their families? You bet. And it would have cost a fraction as much as bailing at AIG. And don’t even get me started on NAFTA. So yes it makes me mad to see the government shuffle some wealth over to here and move some funds over to there all the while picking and choosing who gets to succeed and who has to find another career, because the entire time they are doing that, people are falling through the cracks and having their lives ruined.

I know you’ve had a hard life, I see it in so many people every day. I have brought people to tears discussing my existence and what I’ve had to overcome to get where I am, but that isn’t what this is about. You tried to make it about that, but you are so wrong. It’s about understanding that each of us is part of the big picture and everything that we put out into the world affects the people around us and eventually comes back on ourselves. When enough Americans understand that, we’ll be ready to choose the right leadership and move forward together.

I’m going with the grunts here. We are your core business model, we are the first thing that generates profits, and in the end we get treated like total shite while you guys sit at desks and whine.

I make peanuts, sport. Think I’ll gross about 15k this year. I bust my ass in ways you apparently don’t get. You ever walk out of work and collapse? Done it - man up and work *that* hard for zilch.

My vacation was hospital visits. And that’s the penultimate difference between India and here - they will work that hard, they will do that work for shite money, and so far the economics work out in their favor.

Programmers and desk-jockeys are simply not worth that much overhead, just as I am worth whatever the next person off the street will take.

I wish I could make what I probably deserve. No dice.

No, it isn’t unfair - it’s third world markets getting up to speed, still being third world markets - and being more competitive as a result.

Where’s your prior work that is so astounding compared to what someone living in a hovel and using a rented computer to learn and doing 10 times as well is doing right now?