The killer issue this year (been saying it for more than a year now) is outsourcing. Most people are looking to blame someone for the disappearing job market. Who's it going to be?

For my class this semester "Excellence: Can We Be Equal and Excellent Too?" by John W. Gardner was required reading. I've mentioned this before but it's a timeless subject and one that isn't talked about near enough. One of the many things he discusses is notion that Americans love the idea of equality -- but they don't always love the fact of equality -- because it might mean they come out on the short end of the stick, among other things

Another observation Gardner makes in talking about the "equality of opportunity" is that the general public "accepts fairly wide discrepancies in reward but is opposed to excess at either end of the scale. It wants -- in some measure -- to curb excessive reward and to remedy excessive misery." I think this goes directly to the heart of the outsourcing matter.

You don't need me to point out that the key word here is excessive. And we all know that excessive is in the eye of the beholder -- much like beauty. So there's no telling where the outrage on this one will go.