Their IS such a thing as "painless" inflation and deflation. If it is a controlled descent or ascent we should be able to cope with the adjustment. My point is that all of our heads should be able to figure out a way to make deflation work in the short term since it seems like it is inevitable on the global scale. Everyone has known that as economic security and education increase in the developing world there would come a time when we would reach a relative parity. We had all hoped that the parity would come in the form of mutual inflation and economic growth, but it seems rather sensible that it would, instead, come from our economic faltering while the guys behind us caught up.

We've come to a point where the distinction between a white collar job in the U.S. and India is negligible, except for the massive savings India provides. Often, the help I would get from Americans in the South or inner cities will be sub-par to the help I get from India or the Phillipines. Years ago this wasn't the case. There is no future but to lose service jobs abroad until we reach parity. We are in for a long haul of job losses and we need to realize it. Bright human beings will eventually hold the better jobs no matter where they are in the world and no matter what their background is. Honestly, have we not seen this coming? There has always been a choice - embrace globalization for long term exponential growth and equal opportunity (which would come with a loss of purchasing parity, job losses and a reduction in rampant consemerism in developed countries) or close off from global trade using protectionist/imperialist policies that subjugate global upstarts and potential opponents. The US polity doesn't have the stomach to step on the necks of those less fortunate than us, and so the former way is inevitable, unless we revert to our more base natures.

My point is that we need to embrace a highly stingy and cost-saving mentality and extreme technological innovation that will allow us to lose pay, lose jobs while increasing our quality of life. I think it is possible.