[Adam Y.]

Then the Internet Bubble came along and the investment community suddenly saw 20x and higher returns on their investments, at least until the bubble burst. Now most realize those were unrealistic growth projections, but it seems that the venture capital people are now reluctant to fund high-risk investment without expectation of unrealistically high returns. Between tight money and the economic downturn of 2001, few new technology businesses have been starting up lately. Which means there is a shortage of new jobs for those who are are caught between the outsourcing of "last decade's" technology and the lack of new job fields to go into.

I would actually have to disagree with that. Right here on Long Island there is a new company that is developing a really really really neat and new technology. They say that they can turn animal byproducts and plastics into oil. Now that is really really high-risk investment. G.W. Bush wants about 1.2 billion spent on researching fuel cells. Everyone knows about IRobot and the Rhoomba vaccum. Google still wants it's employees to work on their own projects to improve their company.