I am old school that way - prefer reading to watching whenever possible. As far as the "we'll fix this later" argument goes, well, surely you have witnessed how ineffective that is. I think in Potter's interview (but perhaps it was the other) Moyer made the point that the initial Medicare bill was supposed to be "corrected" by later legislation as well. And that, by and large, did not occur.

Others have pointed out that this corporate feeding legislation *is* the legislation that Obama wanted. It's what he worked out in advance in collusion with Wall Street, Big Insurance and Big Pharma. I am not surprised by any of this, of course. Early on I recognized Obama as yan corporate toady (as did Ralph whom I wasted my vote upon).

You are quite correct, of course, about "making things." The trouble with "virtual" economies is that they can go away with the flip of a switch and no one will suffer any tangible damage for it. Such is our brand of progress.

The only remaining question for me is whether my daughters will live long enough to see the United States rebound. For all my cynicism, there is some residue of optimism. When the dollar collapses, we will become the new Third World and that might cause the wealthy Chinese and Indians to take advantage of our "cheap" labor. We will, of course, in an effort to entice those wealthy foreigners shed the luxurious legislation fit for wealthier states (Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, establishment of the EPA, OSHA, etc.) and that will contribute, possibly, to a rebuilding of our manufacturing base.

That's some brand of optimism, n'est ce pas?