There are two trends to watch in America during the next decade or two:
1. Public attitude toward public employee compensation and benefits
2. Public attitude towards Free Trade . Specifically, outsourcing of what used to be reliable, middle class tax base jobs.
Where the US public falls on these two issues will make and break the economies of entire nations. If the public attitude is hostile and protectionist, then countries like the Philippines will feel it tenfold. If the public attitude is indifferent or resigned to it happening because they feel they can't stop it, then multinationals will continue with their search for the country with the cheapest labor and lowest labor standards.
Ironically, the public sector, liberal or conservative, should be concerned about outsourcing because their tax base is getting smaller when a US company decides to lay off 100 or more workers, restructure, and send those jobs overseas. The US public sector is directly threatened because if 100 or more jobs get outsourced then, then that means 100 or more individuals not paying into the tax base (ie their salary and benefits) at the same rate they were before.
You will see some strange bedfellows and it will be between those of different ideological lines, but share a common economic belief in what is good for the American worker is best for the American economy.
