Many will rate this a Zero when they see the authors name, that is the way it is with most Liberals. A few will actually read this and make some comments, but none of you will dispute it's truth.

The American Dream is still alive and well in the hearts and minds of many Americans. There are thousands of new businesses started every year in this country. Many fail due to undercapitalization, wrong product at the wrong time, or a lack of business know-how on the part of the owner. This is the way the American Dream has panned out for over 200 years.

Many people believe that the large companies that are still viable should feel some responsibility to the workforce they employ, and many do. Saddly many do not. Either way it is the individual who has ultimate control over how these changes in global interconnectiveness will effect them in their daily lives. If your company has been hard hit by the often times financial backlash of downsizing or the moving of your job overseas, I do feel for you. It can be a real hardship, harder yet if you have been with a company for many years, have no other job skills or are an older employee who might find it hard to adapt to another job. These are all very real situations that many people find themselves in these days.

There is no easy answer. To stop all "outsourcing" of jobs is to tie a rope around many American companies as they attempt to compete with companies who are often subsidized by the governments of the countries they are based in. Perfect example is Boeing vs. Airbus. To excelerate this process promisses to cause a load of trouble for both domestic and foreign companies as all are looking for the cheapest manufacturing cost to produce products that can then be sold for the highest of profit margins. But, if the people you are trying to sell it to have no money becasue they lost their job, well, you get the picture. However, there are some survivors out there that have been down, turned it around and beaten the odds. Like the afore mentioned Boeing. This company has returned to making money.

General Motors has produced a different kind of hell which it must work it's way out of. While Toyota, Nissan, Mazda, Honda and Mitsubishi have had the luxury of not having to deal with unions over the last 40 years, GM has had to constantly look both at threats coming from overseas and at those posed by the very workforce it has employed. Unions have for years done great things for their employees, often times at the cost of the very company that pays it's members wages.  GM's main domestic competition is having many of the same pains right now which will undoubtedly hold Ford back at second place domestically while GM figures out it's future. But unfortunately for GM, Toyota will more than likely become the number one manufacturer of automobiles world wide sometime this year, surpassing a former giant and taking yet another bragging right away from the USA.

Then there are the "little guys". These are the small companies most have not even heard of yet. These are the Microsofts and GM's of the future. These are the GE's and IBM's that are yet to be. Many are American, many are foreign. But the American Dream is what drives them. If a guy starts a business and can keep it afloat for 5 years he has a real chance of reaching greatness to some scale. As he grows, he hires more employees, buys more materials to produce his product, which in turn helps his or her supplier grow and hire more employees. This is the way it has been for over 200 years in America. I am sure that the largest buggy wip manufactuer in the world was astounded by the invention of the automobile. If in operation today I am sure they would have raised hell about the decline of their industry, just like the blacksmith, the guy who installed all the posts for the horses to be tied up to and the water trough maker.

But in todays world, we all react as if this is something new. It is not. As we move towards other fuels, the oil guys will have to adapt or go under. I have never heard of a single liberal who has a problem with this, but mention a textile plant being closed and they have a stroke. Tell them that cigarette smoking is down to it's lowest in 55 years and Phillip Morris and RJR may have to lay off people from their assembly lines, they cheer. Tell them that GM and Ford have not prepared themselves for a changing world economy and they are up in arms and swearing that it was the GM and Ford management that made it happen. We all know that they have to bare some of the responsibility, but so should the unions who at times forced them to enter into agreements that were pipe dreams from the get go.

When IBM was on the ropes because of competition by Ross Perot and Compaq, Xerox and Cannon, the Japanese and other foreign entities, the people spoke of what will happen to the employees. Well, some lost their jobs. Others made it through the hard times, there is no right to employment in this country. But, and this is a huge BUT, each person who made it to the other side, whether unemployed or still employeed, had a decision to make. They could keep at it, look for another job, start their own company or lay down and let the weight of it all crush their spirit. This is where the American Dream becomes very American.

Only here in this country do we have the freedom to make those choices. Sure, some countries like France, Germeny, Britian, Japan and even Russia these days have some sort of freedom to do the same. But only in American is it expected that you can and will make the choice for yourself, that you can and will overcome the problem.

Walt Disney, filed backruptsy 7 times prior to coming up with the idea for Disneyland, and an employment giant was born, employing people in all 50 states and at least 25 countires around the world. Sam Walton, tried to go up against the big guys, JCPennys, Sears, KMart and others. Another idea that almost cost this guy everything, and another employment giant was created employing over 1 million Americans and hundreds of thousands more around the world.

Job growth and creation go in cycles. The economy is too. So too does status, both for the individual, corporations and countires. We are the greatest economic power the world has ever seen. There is only one reason for this, freedom. As other nations aquire a taste for the life styles we lead, desire the future we have for our children, and see opportunity raise it's head around the world, we will be challeged for our position. Can we stay on top, I'd like to think so, but I can not read tea leaves or tell the future. But I can look at the past.

Britian lost her luster, but remains a power to be reckoned with. China is growing at an incredible rate and has stood the test of time as a nation that just will not role over and die. Japan, France and Germany have stayed ahead of the pack for years, but are always on the brink of financial devistation. Then there was the Roman empire, which got just a little to full of itself, and the Dutch who once controlled over 50% of the worlds shipping and commerce. Has their day come and gone? Who knows. Perhaps they will re-emerge one day on the world ecomonic stage, maybe not.

The American Dream is still alive. It has changed a bit over the decades and centuries, but the essence still remains. I CAN! This is the driving force of the entrepreneur, to take the risk, to stick his or her neck out there. This is something that is at the very core of American life.

But what would I know, I am just an Average American.