Having survived Katrina, I moved to Columbus, Georgia and got a job at the local newspaper as a graphic designer. However, in April 2008, the graphic design department was outsourced to India. I can some what understand manufacturing jobs being outsourced, but graphic design jobs??? Anyway, I decided that now was a good time to go back to college. So I am now working on an English Lit/Creative Writing BA and then will go on and get a Masters and Ph.d--hopefully to teach one day.  I have decided to wait out the recession by being a student. Might as well since there are no jobs...even my younger friends are having problems finding jobs...in Atlanta!  The other things I am doing is drastically cutting back on bills and spending. I bought a re-purposed double wide refrigerator so I can buy food in bulk. I bought a breadmaker so that I can make my own bread...I did this after bread went up to $3.00 a loaf. At $3.00 a loaf I decided that I can make my own bread!!  Plus I can make about 8 loaves for what 1 store brand loaf would cost me.  I also have found that just buying what I need at the local store saves more money that shopping at the Big Box (if you know what I mean). The local store is actually cheaper for groceries...of course they don't have plasma screen TVs, and clothes...but, who needs all that stuff anyway.  The recession has really hurt me the most with the cost of gas. When it was up to about $4.00 a gallon I had to cut down on getting my granddaughter who lives about 2 hours away, but now that it is down (at least for awhile), I can see her every two weeks again.  

I have been saving my tags from things I have bought for the last two years and most of them are made in China!  Is anything made in America anymore?  I don't know how they think the economy is going to get better if all of our jobs are outsourced to other countries. No one in America will have a job or the money to purchase the crap they send over here. I don't know what the solutions are but America needs to stop being a warehouse for goods made in other countries.