In the late 20th Century, harassment in the workplace focused almost solely on sexual harassment- the most famous cases even involved a U.S. Supreme Court Nominee and the President of the United States. While charges of sexual harassment and racial discrimination still continue, one wonders how things are changing and what types of harassment will people be charged with in the future.

In the U.S. anyway, there is a rapidly growing gap between the super rich and the middle class, and the latter is becoming poorer. A sort of economic discrimination is underway in the U.S., and it looks like the trend is getting worse, not better.

Which is odd because the same phenomenon is not happening in other countries of the world that enjoy a similar standard of living as the U.S. In Japan, for example, many people have lost their jobs and are having a difficult time finding new ones, just as in the U.S. But Japan provides safety nets and governmental support for their jobless in a far more efficient and generous way than the U.S. And although nearly everyone in America recognizes that times are bad, that any job is good right now, many former professional and skilled workers are now doing menial labor and have had to, in a sense, accept that they now belong to a lower class than that which they were used to.

This is not a value judgment in any way, but Japanese seem to be better at rallying together and encouraging the underdog than stand out Americans. My fear is that if nothing is done to push America along in an evolutionary sense, it could, socially speaking, be joining the ranks of the developing nations rather than maintaining its position as world superpower. Lets hope this doesn't happen, but we must be aware of it.