In this economic climate it's just not that simple.

Also, to get a high paying job, you usually need a college degree.  I'm willing to bet a lot of these people don't have college degrees.  If you are above a certain age, I'm not sure it makes a whole lot of financial sense to go into serious debt to get a degree when you will only work for a few years.

I'm not into the envy game: Knock down the other guy because he makes more than me (or 10 of me, or 100 of me).  

As with most things in life we have at least 3 choices:  Be happy about it; Be miserable about it; or change it.  

Some people want to complain about the other guy making so much money but they aren't willing to take the risks and try for themselves.  They prefer to complain.

I prefer to change my lot, or change my attitue (and be happy with what I have).  

You want to say they're not easy, fine.  They may not be.  

You want to make excuse after excuse after excuse for how The Man is keeping you down, sorry don't wanna hear it.  

This started in 1995 with the WTO. Fifteen years later we can see the results.

The question is this. How do we fix it?

Giving the banks billion didn't fix it and giving business owners billions in tax rebates won't fix it. The former because it wasn't needed and the latter because no one hires someone for a tax rebate.

Simply put we must start "Buy(ing) America" if we want manufacturing to return.

And let me tell you this will he difficult. About four years ago I was involved with a start up. We desperately tried to manufacture in the US but the costs just made the product non-competitive.

And the free traders will say that it was tariffs that really drove us into a world wide depression.

Is that true? Well, it may have been true then, but is it true today? We export corn as ethanol at around $176 a gallon and import oil at $2.60 a gallon (gas).

BooHoo the honest worker got screwed...

By his boss, by failed/lack of oversight, by the  companies who sent jobs overseas, by system "gamers" who made lots of money, by whoever or whatever created the housing bubble, blah blah blah....

You seem to be making a distinction between the poor innocent honest worker doing everything right and getting screwed vs. everyone else (all of whom are dishonest, greedy, rich, incompetent overseers, or grifters).  

Like I said, feel free to be alone in your unhappiness.  Otherwise, you can DO something about it.  Guess what, you still have THAT choice.  Although I suspect you'll whine that it was taken away by the greedy bad guys too, or that its a crappy choice 'cause you might have to move, or its too hard/expensive/boring to go to school... blah blah blah...

Or, like I said before, maybe you should just give up.

You're clearly looking for someone else to fix your problems.  And you're whining because you don't think you had anything to do with the situation you're in, and you apparently don't think you have any chance of bettering yourself.

I think his main goal here is to genuinely shame/persuade a few of the very small number of semi-rational people among the Republicans to break ranks and begin to cooperate-- not to mention actually vote for something.

His closing remarks were very clear.  He said if there appears to be some movement in the next few days towards cooperation on "the things we all agree on," he'll pursue that and work with it.  If not, he says, we have no choice but to go ahead with doing it via reconciliation.

He's still trying to agree with the Republicans, even if he occasionally appears to be pushing back here and there; letting a few zingers fly is not the same as advocating for Democratic policies.  He's defending his proposal, which is a product of right-leaning Democrats and concessions to industry and Republicans.