Boy, do I feel old reading this, and recalling Turbo Pascal 3.0 way after I was a teenager...

Speaking as one who returned home a few years ago, I'd say you're exactly right. Most of my compatriots who stayed are now having to deal with huge mortgages on sinking home prices and an uncertain prospect in the job market.

Where do you get the idea that farmers in the third world are being put out of business by farming businesses in the U.S. and Europe? If anything, farmers in North America and Europe are being given vast lifelines (in the form of subsidies and trade barriers) to avoid competition from more efficient producers in the developing world.