I think the marketplace is always changing, and the years of lifetime employment with a company are long gone. You have to keep your skills up to date in order to compete. I understand that, and it doesn't bother me. I think it's a reasonable price to pay for not having the government run business.

However, what kind of skills do we acquire in order to work?


>To answer your question, yes I read the article. Did you see the April 4th issue of Time magazine? More of the same. We will soon be indifferent to such stories as they will be all too common.
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>Here is another example of what companies do to save on the cost of labor.
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>There was a manufacturer of computers in Fremont, California, named Apple Computer, headquarters in Cupertino, California. This particular computer manufacturing plant was famous for “Zero Defects”. The quality this plant turn out was outstanding and a model of the industry.
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>One day while attending a professional meeting at the Apple Campus in Cupertino, I heard a most interesting topic being discussed. It seemed that at this time (around 1991?) the big thing was to be ISO 9000 certified. To gain certification companies did specific things and sometimes used outside consultants.
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>Apple came up with an ingenious plan how to certify its plant and at the same time reduce its labor cost! A template was created to comply with the requirements of ISO 9000. Each employee in the manufacturing process was given a copy of the template and told to “fill in the required information”, which they did.
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>After all the information was acquired and the plant certified, the plant was moved to Sacramento, and the work force was fired. You see, it costs less to do business in Sacramento. Who needs expensive Bay Area labor? Why train anyone – you have process sheets and step-by-step instructions how to build Apple computers?
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>Tom