"All the wealth in these markets has been shrunk to a fraction of what it was before. And what wealth remains has been redistributed to a smaller number of people. Sound familiar?"

<rant mode>
This meme needs to die. When Amazon entered the book market the cost to acquire a book went down. It didn't shrink the wealth, it simply changed how much wealth one book represented. What is more, with lower prices the number of books sold actually went up.

When Safeway removes Checker's and replaces them with self serve checkout lines, they don't suddenly 'reap the benefit of no more salaries' rather a long grinding process where the cost to produce food has risen and retail prices have remained flat has squeezed ever more margin out of the grocery business. They have recovered some margin, but it won't return to the level that allowed for a large scale 'mom & pop' supermarket.

Its ironic to hear people shopping in Walmart that the government should do something about people manufacturing things in China. The prices they enjoy at Walmart would not be possible without some of those conditions. But go and pay 3 - 10% more to support a locally sourced store? "No way!" they will say, they have to make every dollar count.

I loved the "I've got a degree where is my fucking job" poster. Like for some reason you put in your 2 to 5 years and voila you get a job. People with science degrees, unemployement is < 5% [1] its actually probably less than 3% in the Bay Area. Because 'need' + 'degree' = job, but a degree in "Fitness and Cinematography", not so much.

The recent "don't be a joker" [2] rant exemplified this for me. Basically the theme is "Hey work is serious shit" you know if you expect to get paid, you are expected to add value, and that can mean being inconvienienced by not going on vacation this year, or commuting long hours, or going back to school to learn a skill someone would hire you to employ. At some point the switch flips and you 'get it' that you do what you need to do to get by and you cherish the good things in life and shrug off the crap shoveling that comes in every situation.

So here is the deal. There is a large unmet demand for people with science degrees. If you want a degree that will get you a job, get a science degree. There is a large unmet demand for miner's in Australia. [3] If you don't care to get a degree you can make it with a high school diploma. You can get to Australia by trading labor for passage on a merchant marine ship. You can change your lifestyle to work with the income you're able to bring in, you can change your skillset for more income, you can trade off risk for money.

The weird part is, this is all there is. (this freaks some people out) Days are going to pass, you get older, you die. How you pass the days are really up to you, and while different people have different hurdles to overcome, its not like waiting will cause that hurdle to disappear. Waiting just wastes time, and eventually you will look back and want that time back, and you won't be able to get it back.
<end rant mode>

[1] http://blogs.sciencemag.org/sciencecareers/2011/11/science-d...

[2] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3246259

[3] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020462190457701...