....lybob

1. America's total dominance in manufacturing was mainly a result of world war 2 where much of the industry in Europe and Asia was destroyed. So no matter what economic decisions America made the rest of the world was going to increase their share of GWP relative to America. 2. In the 1980s three economic preferences won out- 1. free markets over protectionist 2. individual business interests over State interests and 3.competition on lowest wages over competition on productivity or product value. In business there are different ways to compete 1. the quality of the product 2. cost (cost of labor)+ (cost of inputs) x(efficiency of processes) it takes a lot of intelligence to increase the quality of the product, or the efficiency of the process, cost of inputs are generally pretty equal- that leaves labor costs as the easy fix- and even if the American worker is 2 or 3 times as productive he's behind if the foreign labor is getting 1/10 to 1/20 the wage. so business had a incentive for off-shore manufacturing and government did not discourage them if fact they gave tax breaks that made off-shoring even easier and the elimination of different tariffs also encouraged off-shoring.

a prefer a catastrophe, or cluster****

yeah except then you have to compete against other teams for his services- good luck with that

If anything Obama is a corporatist the same as Bush, a little more articulate a little less in your face but pretty much the same-Socialist? I wish! there has been a class war going for the last 40 years and if you are part of the middle-class or lower then you have been on the losing side and I don't expect that to change anytime soon.

physically none what so ever but it is another in your face example of how the corporations and rich and well connected get treated compared to your average Joe Blow- BP might only be on the hook for 75 mill of damages that are going to reach into the tens of Billions- and this was not a accident like spinning out on some black ice and hitting a pole- this was the equivalent of speeding, while drunk, in a truck that failed inspection, blowing off red lights and slamming into a school bus- people should be in jail or at worst out on bail- and I'll tell you how this has a chilling effect on me, I'm a proponent of nuclear energy but when I see how BP, and Massey energy (the WV coal mining company) will cut any corner to save money and how weak the government regulatory agencies are in enforcement I have little confidence in the overall safety of building many nuclear plants.

I have a relative working there- Craig Venter is pretty much a super-genius heading a group of geniuses and near geniuses- this is basic research that will help advance many areas but I think advances in bio-fuels will be one of the first tangible benefit we will see.

simply not true it wasn't too long ago when a lot of analysis had the Bills on the cusp- but the Bills regressed or stagnated - it's only the last couple years that they've been predicting 3-4 wins- and why wouldn't you after the Bills have burned you.

granted Spiller is a consensus 1st rounder, but questionable pick considering the Bills OL situation Troup I've seen the guy rated as low as a undrafted free agent and the highest I've seen him rated is a 3rd-4th rounder Easley another guy who I've seen rated as low as a undrafted free agent. obviously the Bills scouting staff thought these players were good picks where they got them as do 32 teams every year you just have to hope that the Bills draft boards were better than average.

what circumstances? either he'll play with the Bills in a rotation or he'll get traded and maybe be the featured back- probably the worse thing that can happen to him is that he plays for the Bills and gets minimum carries- it was probably a mistake for the Bills not to take a 3rd round pick for him and grabbing Bruce Campbell.

Yes they have better run defenders but where is the pass rush going to come from? in the 3-4 you might get 10 sacks from the whole Dline - you need to get 20+ sacks from your OLB position, that's expecting a lot out of Maybin and whoever else is going to play OLB.

Lets look at Bell in a realistic way without all the positive or negative hype from wiki Bell's high school had not fielded a football team, so prior to his attending Northwestern State, he had never played organized football. In the fall of 2005, he red-shirted the basketball season and began playing for the school's football team. He was initially placed in the position of defensive end. The following year, injuries struck the team's offensive line, and he was moved to the left tackle position. He earned second-team All-Louisiana honors that season.[4] Bell made a bigger name for himself in his senior season of 2007, having focused solely on football. Remaining on the offensive line, he was named an All-Louisiana and an All-Southland Conference first-teamer. He also became an Associated Press All-American.[4] if you have watched Bell you know on the plus side he has some nice athletic traits- good agility, balance, with the ability to mirror- it is also pretty impressive that he went from never having played organized football to winning some accolades. but Bell has merely adequate height and weight, with barely adequate arm length- and his strength and technique were not adequate as of last year my conclusion on Bell is that while it is not out of the realm of possibility that he will be an adequate to good LT, the odds are against him, especially coming off a knee injury.

Flutie was a freak both in height and athletic ability- defenses started off playing him like a normal QB and then said wtf this little midget is killing us - eventually teams formulated defenses that took away some of Fluties strengths and Flutie went from looking great to looking below average- to me what Flutie is proof of is that you can win a certain amount of games by novelty like Miami using the wild cat but teams eventually catch on.

I don't know if it's because he plays soft as much as he doesn't have NFL strength and technique - maybe with a new strength and conditioning coach progress can be made, I was disappointed with Bells progress in gaining strength and weight last year, without PEDs you need an intelligent strength program combined with serous dedication to gain appropriate strength levels to play effectively in the NFL.

I'd have a little more hope for Bell if he wasn't injured - but one of the things he lacked was a NFL level of strength and with an injured knee I doubt he's been doing the type of lifting needed to correct that lack of strength.

Maybin was a huge reach- a guy who is not ready to contribute at a high level now but may have that potential- guys like that are 2nd or 3rd rounders at best- Maybin has a similar build to Manny Lawson but he's a tad smaller and no where near the athlete that Lawson is- and I would argue that Lawson was a huge reach at the 22nd pick in the first round.

The coaching has to be better than Wade, oops I mean Williams, oops I mean Marlarky, oops I mean Juaron- you are totally wrong we should be strait doom and gloom then if the Bills do anything positive we will be pleasantly surprised- if the more likely result happens and they crap the bed at least we will be well fortified, myself by hard drink.

look people will say and think nice things about the Bills when they make the playoffs or at least aren't painful to watch- I've given the Bills a much longer leeway than I've given politicians and political parties but come on the longest non playoff streak in the NFL who the heck wants to reward that with faith- I doubt the majority of the people on this board would be that generous to their children.

ha ha ha ha -don't you realize that a lot of this board is too stupid to get sarcasm.

Looking at the long shots - I'd be interested in Detroit- they have been a bad team so long but they have some of the talent you look for in an up coming team- they have some potential probowl players in C.Johnson, Stafford, Suh, Pettigrew, Best and enough second tier guys to have at least a pretty good offense.

12-15 carries and 6-8 passes thrown to him - 2-3 returns and he should be a decoy on about 20 plays

Lordy, Lordy if the Bills made a move to get a non-scrub LT I'd be so happy- I'm amazed that anyone has the nerve to complain- I mean let me get this strait after all the moronic things the Bills have done, your complaint is that the top 10 OT we might be going after may be slightly worse than another guy if the other guy is completely healed from serious injuries that kept him from playing last season.

Jackson has better hands and seems to be smarter- Marshawn can be a beast but I didn't like the bulking up, intentional bulking up almost always seems to backfire, also Marshawn's running style will probably lead to injuries and a short career.

Aaron Schobel doesn't want to be traded or to retire he wants to be cut so he can make his own deal- probably with a 4-3 team in the South- what do the Texans play?

If was to rate RW I'd put him in the bottom quarter- but less face it if we had a sharp, ambitious, loaded owner he'd move the team out of Buffalo- worry about the city and state not the team- if we ever got the city and state right we wouldn't have to worry about the team.

Wang has some nice physical qualities but is not overly powerful for a guy who's been hitting the weights since he was ten.