Technology has changed society and automated most tasks, things like going to the bank and getting gas - replaced by a machine interface. Rental cars, airlines and movie tickets, all available online without having to interact with anyone. Nearly everywhere a repetitive or confrontational task is you can find a machine doing that job, like going to the registry or paying a parking ticket. Convenience rules the day and most don't seem to mind scanning their own groceries, it saves time, right?
As for American industry, we are all happy to see someone else do the dirty work. Not even the people who are out of work buy American, they all head to Walmart to get cheap, chinese crap because it costs a few cents less than the Made in U.S. stuff. Frankly, it is often of far greater quality, American's expect too much pay and all that workplace safety stuff isn't cheap. American cars are a good example of just how crappy our industry can be, no one was surprised when that tanked. It isn't only American cars, U.S. financial products have become pariahs on the world trading floor. No one wants to touch that crap either.
Piss poor management can't be discounted. How many times have I had to work overtime to cover a boss' mistake? I would argue that a lot of the problems we see are the fault of a few idiot managers. It's no secret that big companies hired way too many people to get a bump in stock or they eliminated lower level managers and heaped too much responsibility on the already overworked staff. Poor handling of other people's livelihood was certainly more of a factor than anyone wants to admit and to blame the "economy" is like blaming the weather. If you are laying off a few thousand employees - my friend, the problem might be you.
While we're admitting unpleasant realities, there is the problem of personal incompetence. I lost plenty of jobs to a shitty attitude. Maybe I didn't like the boss or the task or the circumstances but in the end it was usually my fault when I got shitcanned. Not to mention the mistake of getting a job and thinking it's yours forever, it's always a good idea to stay abreast whatever industry you are in and if you require someone to print out emails then don't be upset when you're not the boss much longer.
The point of all this being, things change. Sometimes it sneaks up gradually, sometimes it's all at once. If you should be good at anything - be good at change. The job that pays the bills today might not be there tomorrow and anyone who thought they could go on working at the video store forever - they thought wrong. We all want the easy life, the American Dream, the big fat paycheck without a lot of hard work but that is not how it is to be. While you were on hold with the support guy from India about that Chinese computer it all slipped away...
