But I can't go overseas and work, the company has the power and resources to go overseas and get workers. Its about power, economic power, its as real and unforgiving as the power that comes from the barrel of a gun.

When I lose my job, even through no fault of my own, my creditors don't want to hear why. Of course, I can always go on welfare and instead of doing an honest day's work, I can survive on someone elses' tax dollars. But that means that the employer is using everyone's taxes to help finance HIS outsourcing. The same goes for illegal immigrant labor and all the rest. I can no longer afford to buy all the products and services I would buy from industry if I were employed, that puts more people out of work in a vicious cycle. And the nation can not even defend itself without relying on goods made by our potential enemies. We are not alone, we are all in this together and economically interconnected. We cannot think of employment as a gift from the makers to the takers. We all suffer when people are out of work, the workers, the communities, the tax base, even (eventually), the companies. Everybody. The desperate scramble for short term profit is partially payed by those who will never benefit from it.

Sure, no one is immune from the law of supply and demand, but if you have the financial, legal and government resources, lobbyists and politicians in your pocket, you can make sure you're the last to suffer. That is economic power. And the purpose of government is to protect those who don't have any from those who have too much.

Economic conditions change, and if our new position in the world means we have to all lower our standard of living, then so be it. But what we see is more and more people are giving up more and more, and fewer and fewer people are getting richer and richer at their expense. That is no accident. It has been planned that way.

The ability to do that and get away with it is economic power, and you and I don't have any. Unions and government can help level the playing field. Can they be abused, or make mistakes? Of course. But without them we are totally helpless. We will be forced to work harder than we have to for less, if we are lucky enough to have any job at all.

And I can't think of a better definition of slavery than that.