I've been following strings dealing with our economic woes, with interest, and have noted that most  of the posters have exhibited frustration, fear, and anger relative to the unemployment  situation.  I, also, sensed that most posters are expecting that this weak economy will pass.  I, fortunately, have never been the victim of a "reduction in forces."  ( Was asked to resign a couple of times, but those events were self-inflicted).  I do know what it feels like to be "a day late and a dollar short!"

We have all been informed what opinions are like.
If you have not been informed, ask around...Someone will inform you.  So here is my opinion on the economy and our future:

Eric Hoffer, author, longshoreman and adviser to John Kennedy wrote some lengthy dissertations relative to economics.  One of his strongest assertions (not exactly quoted) was that no successful economy was ever created that did not create "material" products that another tribe, hamlet, city , state or country was not desirous of.  Be the object grain, spices, machinery or sea shells, objects preferably manufactured from raw materials taken from same area of origin, optimized the success of the trade relationship.  Hoffer emphasized that service industries created little stability because knowledge knows no boundaries.

I drove the turnpikes from Chicago to the East coast, for the first time, in the early-sixties.  At night, the polluted skies were aglow from the towering stacks of refineries, steel mills and various other heavy manufacturing industries.  This stretch of America was the backbone of our middle class.  Today, that same stretch is known as "The Rustbelt."  If you have read this far, it isn't necessary for me to explain the sundry forces that decimated our manufacturing base.  As off-shoring decimated our middle-class, our tax base was equally decimated.  Then, followed the deterioration of our infrastructure.  How could our middle class sustain its' standard of living?  Easily!  Loosen the credit standards!  Import CCPS (Cheap Chinese Plastic S**t) as a replacement for items that had once been manufactured here.  Capital for internal investment has left our shores years ago.

Some skills can't be off-shored, but there will never be enough jobs available to off-set those which are gone...Forever.  This country is undergoing drastic economic change.  We are not experiencing a "dip" in our economy.  What the future holds, I have no idea.  I don't buy that America's ingenuity will return us to the word-prominence we once enjoyed.