Trust me, U.S. engineers know the metric system. They even know how to convert from inches to centimeters.

Hey, this is the same sermon thats been preached for decades now. No joke, are we really in bad shape, and spiraling to the depths of economic ruin? Just in case anyone has slept through the past half century, this is the path that the Washington Brotherhood has had us on since the end of WWII. Sure, things are rotten, and getting worse by the minute. In the first place, Main Street America doesn't need a bunch of charts and graphs to indicate just how bad the situation is. Folks are, and have been , hurting for a long long time now. And secondly, as I've found out over the years, it doesn't matter how many times we preach the message, stupid ignorant voters continue to re-elect the anti-America egotistical self-serving greedy power hungry professional politicians to office. As long as the voters willingly give The Washington Brotherhood "Carte Blanche" to exert their will, and not the will of the people, we can expect nothing more than what we're getting now.

Yes, we've been sold out by the very ones entrusted with the well-being of this once great nation. But, exactly where does the real blame rest? Remember, politicians don't just waltz into Washington and take a seat, we elect them to office. They couldn't do the damage unless we allow it by handing over the keys to the economic doors. What does anyone expect to happen, when handing the keys to the vault to a bunch of thieves, then turning out the lights and leaving the front door wide open?

We can rant and rave until the proverbial cows come home, but to what end? Nothing is going to change until voters awaken to the cold hard facts. The Washington Brotherhood has become an entity unto itself, answerable to no one except itself. Remember, John Q. Public didn't vote on the floors of Congress to send this nation down the path of economic ruin and misery.

The root article is not news, but rather an affirmation of what's being felt by citizens all across this nation. We can add many items to the list of miseries and economic pains. But, the bottom line remains one of "blind patriotism" on the part of voters each election cycle. Once the voting public realizes that the only thing The Washington Brotherhood offers is "taxation without representation", then, and only then, we might see positive changes in government and our economic well-being. As long as we have a Lobbyists' controlled U.S. Congress, and an executive branch dancing to the tunes played by big business and Wall Street, don't expect to see prosperity and self-supporting opportunities where the general public is concerned. To The Washington Brotherhood, the well-being of the general public is nothing more than mere "collateral damage" in their quest for wealth and power. The proof to that statement fills the daily headlines, and is felt by citizens all across this once great nation.

If anyone disagrees with the statements and opinions expressed in this comment, please explain the following:
(1) Extremely high unemployment
(2) Growing poverty and homelessness
(3) The lack of affordable health care
(4) The astronomical and rapidly growing national debt
(5) The growing gap between real wages and the cost of living
(6) The growing cost of higher education
(7) The deficits
(8) Our shameful import and energy dependency
(9) The two senseless deadly costly wars
(10) Lost industries via cheap foreign labor
(11) Infrastructure in disrepair and out-dated
(12) The shameful number of home foreclosures and bankruptcies
(13) Unpenalized job out-sourcing
(14) The continued economic damge caused by illegal immigration
(15) Wasteful monetary foreign aid
(16) Subsidies (freebies) to big oil and wealthy farmers
(17) Economically devastating decline of the Middle Class
(18) Corruption and fraud associated with government no-bid contracts ( military )
(19) Troubled pension funds
(20) The troubled Social Security Fund ( basically consist of government issued I.O.U.'s )

The above is just a partial list, but gives an idea of what we presently face, and will face in the future. Future generations will be paying for mistakes being made now. As our population grows, and self-supporting opportunities decline, we'll be forced to greatly lower our living standards. Unless our government acts now to preserve what's left of centuries of economic progress, future generations of Americans may find themselves labeled "third world". As the "real" value of our currency becomes questioned in world markets, it's a real possibility that our enormous debt will become too much to bear. This may lead to economic damage of a magnitude not seen in the world as we know it.

The lack of "adequate cash flow" WITHIN our economy has already adversely affected tax revenue, and may soon adversely effect the ability of many to acquire the basic necessities of food, water, shelter, clothing, and proper health care. With state governments already basically bankrupt, government funded services will continue to decline. This will push many further into poverty, and create a new class of poor. This will only serve to extend the time-table for any economic recovery, and make the path to recovery more painful and harsh.

In reality, we've become a dependent nation, deeply in debt, at war, and with little or no light at the end of the proverbial tunnel.

All managers of public listed businesses aer ruled by the Stock Market. The Share Price is everything.

I bet when this NEW model was created by the bean-counters in Boeing it was primarily targeted at the men and women of Wall Street. I also bet that Share Prices soared and the people who managed made a lot of money on their shares.

The people who run the USA are primarily Financiers, Bankers, Lawyers and Accountants. They don't respect any one who makes their living in any other way(except possibly doctors?)because to them it's the cost which is important - not the value.
An experienced Engineering Team at Boeing is expensive - for good reason - they combine Skill with Knowhow peppered with experience and a Love of the business.

That means nothing to an accountant. He and the rest of the financial world are looking for low costs and a quick profit. Much better to get the work done by people who cost less - whatever their skill and wherever they are.

What they don't realise and probably wouldn't care about if they did is that they have drilled some big holes in the hull of USS Industry for a quick profit. They can walk away from the wreckage with a few millions and not look back.
For those who do a days work to earn their dime this is not an option and they CARE for their Industry and their Neighborhood.

Re excerpt: Economic populist.
"The drawbacks of this approach emerged early. Some of the pieces manufactured by far-flung suppliers didn't fit together. Some subcontractors couldn't meet their output quotas, creating huge production logjams when critical parts weren't available in the necessary sequence".
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In all this hand wringing about Boeing’s outsourcing debacle the metrication elephant in the room is conveniently ignored. Isn’t it so much easier to blame everybody else for mistakes made, but the company that still uses medieval inches and expects metric trained engineers to use that cumbersome anachronism without hitches? Airbus outsourcers a lot of work and seems to do fine because almost everybody else, except Americans, speak the same measurement language. Parts sourced in the US are easily made mm and keep some Americans employed.
Maybe it is time for the States to push once again for metrication so they can sell their goods to a metric world. That doesn't look too promising right now with the navel gazing and gun toting lot in ascendancy. All this yesteryear mob does is creating another cheap pool of labour for the wealthy lot to exploit.

It is amazing to watch USA and Europe’s Companies giving away intellectual property and expertise for cheap short term gain it will bite you on the arse eventually.
But what is even more amazing is that there politicians don’t see it either. Be sure everyone else does.

Nationwide Government worker unemployment is at 5% while Construction lingers at 22.5%, this despite heavy government intervention which is clear now was useless.

I'm betting U-6 shows a far wider gap than that however I can't find it broken down that way by employment sector.

Labour and the left

Public sector unions were illegal prior to Kennedy and the reasoning why that was is coming to fruition.

This would be the ultimate in the protest movement happening around the globe.

WSJ:

Chinese authorities detained dozens of political activists after an anonymous online call for people to start a "Jasmine Revolution" in China by protesting in 13 cities—just a day after President Hu Jintao called for tighter Internet controls to help prevent social unrest.

The Chinese government has a tight lockdown on the people, and their censorship and shut down of the Internet is well known.

Still, China has over 1.3 billion people, so if those people, especially demand worker/labor rights...

Good for them and also very good for workers around the globe. This entire global labor arbitrage agenda is by corporations and for corporations. Playing workers against each other to erode working rights, labor law, working standards, wages.

*That* is a huge chunk of the problems....wealth inequality, income inequality, treating people so badly they are killing themselves, destroying the middle classes.

MERS is the creation of the big banks and Wall Street to suit their needs. It had nothing to do with anything but selling Mortgage Backed Securities. You can be sure that they knew it was illegal. But they didn't care. And now a huge percent of the mortgages can be challenged. That could work out quite well with come creative leadership (oops, we have no leadership).

I hope the people of Wisconsin realize what a creep this Walker is. We can't recall members of Congress but we can governors and state officials. Time for Walker to pack his bags.

The powers that be are afraid to prosecute them. First, it might lead to loss of political contributions. Second, it might raise inconvenient questions. Kind of reminds you of "graymail" -- this time against the financial system and the Fed. Prosecution? Goodness no, chums -- this will all pass and the ruling class will get richer.