When the whole internet craze started the few "lucky" folks who knew how to operate computers, the software and hardware folks were in such demand that the wages were bid through the roof. That was my point about kids coming out of school straight into jobs making 75-90k per year. That is crazy and established some crazy perspectives for folks. It was though the law of supply and demand, a foundation point of our economic system. As time went on more and more folks came out of school with these degrees and the demand did not match the supply. What happened the wage scale crashed. Companies faced with having to ask employees to cut their pay or lose their jobs found that their choices were to have a disgruntled employee mad as hell at his company for cutting his/her pay or finding another source of the labor.

This has happened in the steel industry, the automotive industry, the telecommunications industry, the computer industry, and it will happen soon to the housing industry. This creative destruction is what drives our economy forward. It forces folks to stay alert, creative, and productive. It is the law of the jungle and it is what allows us to have the big screen tvs and the big suvs. It is the bad that goes with the good.

The good news on this front is that the outsourcing does not work as intended as mentioned above. Some things work, some do not. I bought a new dell laptop recently and had some power and program issues. Called the help line and got sent to India. After the same experience detailed above I told them to shove their service to shove their service up their ass and had my brother work on it. They have called on several occasions since to find out about my experience. Each time I gave them an earful. The last time I got a call the lady said that my experience was not uncommon and as a result only the lower level of service requests would remain outsourced and it will become easier to get to a tech in the US. Again our system at work and the check and balance of the system, provide poor service and lose customers. The dog eat dog only the strong survive forces higher levels of performance.

As to Ray's friend and his insurance. Most life insurance companies have either exclusions for suicide or a time factor restriction, normally 2 years. A friend of mine got himself into trouble with the IRS and blew the back of his head off so his wife could pay the bill and be set for life. I know she wishes he were still around to help make it through the rest of her life. My friend quit and I will never forgive him for it.