AMEN, Scott! The only way to break the MS stranglehold is for the people to say NO to Windows. As I argue in my own newsletter http://quikonnex.com/channe... We need to support and use Open Source software. I myself am gearing up for a switch to one of the Linux based operating systems some time in the next six months.

As more and more people switch operating systems, the software manufacturers will get the message and start creating versions of their products for non-Windows based systems.

BTW, the Mozilla Netscape browser is very much alive. It's called Firebird and it's here: http://texturizer.net/thund...

Good article Scott. We have 'bigger, better, faster' computers with more gadgets than most of know what to do with and ultimately the prices do come down. I never thought about the software prices for the operating systems going down with the new upgrades. That's a great idea. How many times do we have to pay for operating systems and software? Upgrades are one thing but MS keeps breaking apart packages we previously paid for and it's always several hundred dollars extra to get back to what we had. As I mentioned previously, Microsoft and trustworthy computing do no belong in the same sentence.

On Thursday they promised to change the Updates site to make it easier for people to use. I'll believe that when I see it.

There was a time in Rome when it was better to be a slave than a free person. Slaves at least had a roof over their heads and were able to get married and have a family to produce more slaves. Those who chose to be a free person had to live out in the open to escape being persecuted.
Today it seems to be the same in the USA. Workers have to accept "Mickey Mouse" jobs to survive. Personal bankruptcy keeps breaking records. When workers lose their jobs, they think they can quickly get another one of similar value. They use their credit lines to survive. As time goes by they find that there are few jobs left like the ones they once enjoyed. It would have been better if they took the "Mickey Mouse" jobs faster and joined the working poor class.
The period between 1945 and 1985 has prove to be the best economic model the USA has ever known. In the 1980s, companies start going bankrupt and the Savings and Loans went out too with many losing their personal wealth. The older generation were brought up to save and the hope was to have good interest bearing savings accounts when they grew too old to work. This hope died as the Federal Reserve kept lowering interest rates to promote the stock market. The stock market was affected and trillions of dollars of value was added only to have the stock market collapse with many again losing all their personal assets. Now we have a vast senior citizen class with not much more than their Social Security income with the trade offs of low interests rates and lost stock market values in the trillion costing many what it took a lifetime to save.
It seems there is a "rob peter to pay paul" syndrome designed to bate and switch values as the Free Traders and Globalists- both Conservatives and Liberals trying to find new ways to shore up the economy. Our value added local economies are gone. Millions have drifted into a silent depression or joined the new working poor class. For more on the failures of Globalism and Free Trade see Tapart News and Art that Talks at http://yestapart.bizland.co... and view the Cross 9/11 Tangle of Terror artwork by Ray Tapajna asking who will now untangle the terror Globalism and Free Trade have bred. Read What went Wrong and how we can renew the American Dream by Chuck Harder. See top newspaper story featuring the American Dream is Burning artwork at http://tapsnewstory.filetap... and view Locked out workers bearing their cross and The Clinton Years, the American Dream Reversed artwork at http://arklineart.fotopages... See the top ratings for all of Ray Tapajna's thought provoking topical art at http://www.graphicsforum.com

Scott,

After a phenomenal run up in the 1990's, the US Stock market collapsed causing a huge loss in wealth.

Despite the stock market collapse, the US economy did not sink into depression.

The American economy continues to be the economic engine of growth for the world.

You suggest the way to deal with the trade deficit is through "managed" trade.

Perhaps you are correct.

What I can say is:

* The level of foreign trade debt (adjusted for inflation) as a percentage of the total American gross national product is running just above 5%.

http://www.tradealert.org/v...

* This level is not sustainable in the long term and at some point, foreign investors will refuse to buy American debt to continue to finance the growing American trade debts.

How long we can continue on the present path remains an unknown.

Many predicted disaster after the first oil shock in 1974.

For 29 years, America has financed an ever growing foreign debt, using the old standby:

* Owe the bank $1,000, you have a problem;

* But owe the bank $1,000,000, the bank has a problem.

Still, at some point, America has to confront this issue.

Will it happen in 2004? An interesting question.

We, being North Americans, are confronted with a number of concerns:

* The continued use of petro-dollars to finance terrorism;

* An unwillingness to neither end our love affair with cheap energy, nor finance alternative sources of energy;

* A corporate morality which looks to cost cutting as the competitive solution;

* A problem with foreign trade, particularly as it involves China; and,

* A growing realization the exit strategy from Iraq is going to be long and costly.

All these issues are creeping onto the political radar screen.

How will events sort themselves out remains to be seen?

But, certainly the political battles of 2004 will be pivotal, important and fascinating to watch as the "great show" unfolds.

Kind regards,

John Glube
Toronto, Canada