The future of the middle class

Charlie Bess of EDS after a discussion with Tom Friedman (The World is Flat fame) writes about the future of the middle class - and likely loss of jobs to offshoring or automation. You can add to that other losses if companies also get serious about business process "angioplasty". In general, what I call utility jobs are at risk - in IT, and most other white collar processes.

But before we  get in to a funk, there are so many contrarian, even encouraging trends

a) Offshoring, according to government data, has not affected as many jobs as is widely thought. If many of the jobs stay at or below 50K a year, offshoring will not hurt them much. (BTW - the US government has a definition for poverty but not "middle class" - but I would think 50K is a reasonable definition in most industries. The SI/Outsourcing industry has not adjusted to that which is why offshoring is more of a threat to that sector)
b) we may actually be entering a phase where the top end of the boomers is retiring - creating need for several transition jobs
c) technology is creating significant opportunities in homes and small businesses. If you could make house calls in my neighborhood one evening a month you would get at least 3 or 4 families each time who need help with WI-FI, spyware clean up, home electronics. This is true of every neighborhood in the country. Wait till cars have more technology as I have written here.
d)  there are a bunch of new corporate projects being funded around these technology innovations
e) Generation G - significant opportunities to help US grow its exports around the world.
f) new talent hubs are opening up around the world
g) new US locations,  full time and part time jobs are opening up.

Yes, the job market is changing radically .. but the flatteners that Friedman talks about and several other demographic trends are also opening up a whole bunch of new opportunities...may not be what our parents considered a career, but they also lived in a round world...