This statement triggered my BS detector.. "These jobs losses will be in concentrated in rural areas, particularly the swath of America between the coasts"

Isn't -all- of America "between the coasts."

I don't know all of the factors leading up to GM's situation, but I do not think it's about factory workmanship. I think it's more about poor designs and cheap parts. In the last 18 years I've been driving Hondas putting on ~140K to 160 K miles before getting a different one. Almost no repairs. No wheel bearings, no alternators, no mufflers, no A/C pumps, no water pumps, no timing belts. None of that.

Friends driving GM Terrains are getting new wheel bearings at 40 K miles, new mufflers at 50 K. Dodge Caravans have the headlights turn off for no reason, not due to wiring, mind you, but due to bugs in SW. And its $50 bucks to upload the new bug fixed SW at the dealer. Grrrr..

A friend of mine told me she was happy with her Ford Taurus because She got 90K miles before she had to get a new wheel bearing and she was glad to use the extended warrant ( $1600!!!) she bought. WTF!

Personally I'm glad to not need repairs, and to not buy that warranty.

I've had to do only two non-normal maintenance repairs on Hondas in the last 18 years. I had paint flaking on a 1 year old car. Dealer repainted at no cost to me. I had brake lines rust out on a 15 year old Honda that had 150K miles. ( I live in snow country where they salt the roads. ) That's it.

I haven't been job hunting in recent years, but definitely have found employers to be very inconsiderate on this matter. I've never ghosted..

Also have been surprised to hear people with hourly retail or food service jobs walked out immediately after giving two weeks notice. Puts people in a bind who are depending on steady pay. I advise college age workers to pay attention to how their employer operates and act accordingly..

We live in fear of things being messed up due to media. But in reality, things are extremely secure for you. The media has convinced you that you need more more more, and things are bad if you can't get it. But in fact you -already- have more than any previous generation..

There are better social welfare programs than ever before. There' is less homelessness, less hunger, and people are living longer, which means better health. A big concern for people that live in poverty today is obesity. Too much food. Unemployment in America is low. It's very popular for all people, even young kids, to not only have a cell phone, but a smart phone. Did you know a smart phone cost per year?

I blame us Gen X'ers for coddling kids too much. I'm not sure why we think kids will want to stand on their own if they are given everything they need or want as dependents..

Seems to me that a growing economy building new jobs in different sectors has kept people going, but technology doesn't do that directly. Service industries are growing in the US.. What technology created those jobs??

I'm having trouble with this part: "This would make most of Earth uninhabitable to humans."

But I guess maybe most of Earth is uninhabitable by humans now? The oceans cover 71 percent of the Earth's surface, right? Are they saying that more than 50% of what is now habitable will be covered with water and will become uninhabitable? What about the currently uninhabitable parts that will become habitable?

I have found this to be very true outside of Open Source as well.

Some people thrive on pressure, deadlines, designing and building things that are hard to design and build, working in teams solving tough problems. Those people get bored when the SW project goes into maintenance mode. Others don't thrive with all that. They want to, or are at least willing to work at a different pace, with different kinds of challenges, reverse engineer other people's work, make bug fixes or incremental improvements under less stress and with less risk.

Kevin

I guess for examples of natural selection I always think of the weaker, sicker, or less well adapted who are unable to survive as well, so they get removed from the gene pool before passing their genes on.

Saying tall men have more kids doesn't feel like natural selection. I think it would be more like socioeconomic selection. Tall men make more money and so can have more kids and they get better healthcare.

Do you suppose Harris Corp can sell Stingray to anyone who comes along with $200,000. Cops carry cell phones. I'd be surprised if organized crime doesn't already own a bunch of these...

I know for a fact that certain makes/models of aging tractors have very low or even non-existent aftermarket resale value because they are too hard/confusing to troubleshoot and ECUs/electronics/wiring parts are way too expensive. A clever mechanic/electronics person could make a lot of dough 'breaking the code' on these control systems, buying these tractors cheap, rebuilding the electronics and selling for 10's of thousands each.

I guess when the Justice department starts complaining about a 'zone of lawlessness, I start thinking... Hmm,, I bet they now have access to that email we all think is encrypted.. "It's _so_ encrypted. We just can't break into it. It's a safe zone for criminals. "

umm.. ookkaaaaaayyyyy....

In our American two party system, the two parties are so close together in political stance that there is no real choice. And how will voting for a specific party cause the secret negotiations to end? Do we think either party is against this? So, I'm not sure what voting has to do with anything. It's more about how the system is broken.

Capitalism isn't a political system, it's an economic system, and it's not going to fail. It will always work because it's goal is for the people participating to make money, and they do.

Democracy is a political system. Ours democracy started off badly when the economic policies of Alexander Hamilton got the newly born nation into a bunch of stuff a gov't doesn't need to be involved in, The Federalist party, founded by Hamilton further promoted American treasury policy that helped capitalists make money. And our gov't has slowly slide further and further into the hands of capitalists. Don't get me wrong. I think capitalism is great and is perhaps the only economic system that can work. But it can be kept separate from gov't to a much larger extent than we now do.

-Kevin

Assuming you are American or from another developed country Free Trade probably isn't the goal. Free Trade will mostly benefit big corporations who will make more money by producing items in whatever country who's employees will work for the least. And those 3rd World Countries will benefit big time. Effectively wages and standard of living gets averaged out. Rich North Americans and Europeans get poorer as our jobs move out of our countries, and our money moves out of our economies.. Poor Africans and Asians get richer.

-Kevin