Maybe I'm just touchy since I'm one of the two in your poll that have lost thier job & maybe this is a poor subject to poke light hearted fun at.
That sucks, I can feel your pain. As a freelancer since 1997 (I quit my first, and last, job as an employee - 18 months into it), I'm pretty exposed to the market. I really suffered between 2000-2003, not helped by a new business venture failing in early 2001 & taking me for £40,000 I didn't have. I'm still paying that one back now, 8 years later. I never had a credit card until I met my ex. I've now got two, and they're both near maxed. I'd like to blame her, but I can't in good concience.
I am without a doubt my own worst enemy. I just paid 600 quid for 2 listers which, by any rational argument, I really don't need & can't afford... I have a racing car I don't have any right to be able to afford to run... and I spend 6 months of every year (er, well, last year & this & hopefully next) in a foreign country, just to get away from the weather! I've just been lucky that the last 4 years, or therabouts, have landed me working for a client who pays promptly, and who has stacks of work lined up for me just now.
I do demand quality & prefer it from a U.S. source, but they don't make lister/oids here (now that was funny, don't you think)
Actually, there's a good reason for this - and it's the same reason they're not made in the UK any more: The US/UK company simply wouldn't sell enough of them to pay the workforce a living wage... That's why they have to be made in India or China: Because the workforce are cheap. No other reason....
BTW, some of you reading this thread may be interested in a programme that was on UK TV recently, called "The Ascent of Money" - in particular, ep 6, called "Chimerica", looking at the interrelationship between China & America (hence - Chi-merica, geddit?
We brits do that sort of thing, you know
). Someone on YooToob has conveniently created a playlist for this episode,
here.