If you believe the government does it better than private companies your a fool. Pick up a history book.

The fact that there is no choice to using the interstate doesnt change that fact.

I do not use the post office, I dont even know when the last time I mailed a letter was. I ship things via carriers with modern tracking systems - UPS and FedEx. Not surprisingly the private companies are light years ahead of the Gov't.

Government run internet ? Get ready to fill out forms du jour, stand inline, get an "internet license", and have content regulated and commercialized to death - just like everything else they got their greedy hands into. (See: TV, Radio etc)

Politicians are (and always have been) far far more greedy than business's -- and they dont even provide you with anything in return.

+1

The reality is there almost always needs to be a "person in charge" - even if its only a benevolent dictator.

Find people who want some relative independence (less hours or less politics) and who are responsible to partner with. Even if they only have average skills they are invaluable.

EMC is actually doing quite well, and Netapp is kicking ass as well. The only shops that actually look at cost/GB as a measuring stick are small shops, or shops with very specific needs.

Large corporations, government and high tech companies are usually more concerned with management costs, retention, migration and so forth.

Not to mention getting into things like actual storage utilization - often thin provisioning and deduplication (see: Netapp) cuts your utilization so far down that you can purchase systems two or three models below what you were looking at before hand.

I cannot imagine managing multiple sites with multiple TB of data inside of just a Linux or Solaris box. Talk about a nightmare.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/08/idc_q308_disk_storage_numbers/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TACLANE

Who said anything about a VPN ?

(half my retirement funds are now gone).

Like most things in your post thats wrong. Stop believing in the Obama campaign as the source of all your financial info. The correct statements would be pick one:

My retirement fund is now worth half what it was

This recession has actually caused my retirement fund to shrink

Or my personal fave:
What the hell ! You mean we can't buy big houses, SUV's and rack up credit debt endlessly ?!?! What do you mean we have to 'compete' for jobs ? Whats this crap ?? Dont choo kno I'm an American !!!

Its time to sort the wheat from the chaff. Man the fuck up. (and spread that to your friends, and their parents too - the great depression was FAR FAR FAR worse than this and they were not whining as much as people now either.)

Yes, if you have 10 years experience, or a degree and a handful of experience you too can be a rack monkey at google.

Thats his point. No Ph.D. no good job, good location and involvement in good projects. Once a company becomes large enough it takes some luck to be able to move from the bottom tier to anything else, and honestly why bother if you can get a job someplace else off the bat that pays better and allows you more satisfaction (time worked, projects worked on, career growth & flexibility etc etc)

I call BS, thats the only wikipedia page for any car of that age with MPG stated, and it doesnt cite a source. I'd be amazed if the car got more than 15 mpg. (I've spoken with quite a few old car owners who can attest to the crappy mileage)