I protest.

Grumpily unemployed.

Ah, so the "economy" actually "gained" some 57,000 jobs last month. Well, not so much gained as failed to lose, really. (Links via skippy the bush kangaroo; thanks, skippy.) The pain is no less than it was in August and we're all a month closer to the end of unemployment compensation. I note, though, that software engineering jobs in Bangalore are booming. And the boom is not just in Bangalore, either. I guess all these jobs the United States is exporting has been a real windfall for those guys. I have worked with folks from Bangalore and other parts of India, many of whom are undoubtedly benefiting from this situation. Those of us here in the States, though, are left high and dry.

You know, I have no particular desire to learn a new career when my current career is still in strong demand. Just not here, where companies actually have to pay their employees something reasonable. In India, they pay a fraction of the wage they would have to pay here, making for a situation in which an American cannot compete. Personally, I think there is a simple and potentially very effective legislative solution: Force companies based in the United States to pay their overseas workers on the same wage scale as their American workers. Not only would this eliminate the inequity of outsourcing jobs overseas, it would also provide legal weapons against abuses like the Nike sweatshops in southeast Asia.

Oh, and to those who claim that there will be "new jobs" to replace the old ones: That is simply not true. With the caliber of people in places like India and China, you can successfully outsource pretty much any high-tech job. These people are just as good at what they do as we are. Many (if not most) of them went to school here! But their cost of living is a fraction of ours and they can prosper on a salary that would put many of us on the street.

Meanwhile, a whole lot of us are watching our diminishing bank accounts and wondering just what we are going to have to do to get a job.

Oh, yeah, and George W. "tax cuts for the rich" Bush can take his god damned tax cuts and shove them up his pasty white ass!

I'll help.