Well, I think even more people will apply to pharmacy school. If you are out of work with dim prospects, the only thing you can do is a career change. And pharmacy is easier to switch to then say, English to chemical engineering. However, I hope they don't start outsourcing pharmacists. Somebody has to put an end to this trend of not protecting workers. The people at the top squander a lot of the money and profits they earn I think. Bailouts will not help in this respect.
If that is the case, well pharmacy, will be like computer science as well eventually. If everthing is outsourced that can be outsourced, the only things that will be employable will be doctor, dentist, nurse, lawyer, teacher, etc. And very few people will be able to afford those services if they have no money. With no money, one cannot afford to go to the doctor or even to school. If this happens, for all other industry, you will have to move to Asia (think China, Vietnam, Singapore, etc.) From what I have heard, Vietnam only has a 2% unemployment rate right now! So obviously that country must be doing something right!! I don't want to be controversial but I think maybe a system like China with strict government, regulatory control, yet allowing free enterprise is the best. Perhaps we should try to copy some of what the Chinese or Vietnamese do in terms of the economy, because what they are doing now really seems to be working, compared to the rest of the world. The key is that they are producing products while we are not, unfortunately. The Philippines also has some degree of economic growth right now as well. The problem is lack of strict regulation. Without strict regulation, people will be greedy, I think. Just my opinion. Please feel free to disagree with me.
I think a possible solution is to also start building a better mass transportation as they have in Europe in Asia. We will conserve gas, protect the environment, and create jobs. We need manufacturing to keep our economy going. After the 1930s, the only reason why the US came out of the Great Depression, was the manufacturing of weapons for World War II. Instead of manufacturing more weapons, which we have plenty, we need to spend this into roads, and mass transportation. Also, we can make our environmental much cleaner than it is now (something China does not do at all). If we try to fix these two things which will take as long to develop as the computer (remember the evolution of a useable computer took over 30 years), we can start the economic engine going again. We need to have a better education system, the way that is done in Singapore or even in France. One of my classmates, was from the National University of Singapore in applied math, and their books were way ahead of here even at the college level. He even took engineering classes such as thermodynamics, and fluids to expand his background! In France, there is always much innovation that is coming from that country. Their education system is extremely selective. To go to the L'Ecole Polytechnique, for example, you need to take an entrance exam and be in the top 10% (this is called "Le Concours", a competition). The engineers study two years of college and also take this same entrance wide exam in France. Hence, I feel they are much more respected over there. We need to also have an entrance exam on a variety of subjects for college entrance. We can put together a large multi-day exam consisting of all the SAT II's in Literature, US History, Math IIC, Physics, Biology, Chemistry (and teach Organic Chemistry in high school), etc. This would force the high schools to have to IMMEDIATELY perform, and teachers to teach the level of AP classes in EVERY subject. This is what is done in Asia and in France and Germany. We need to do that here for sure. The high school education system, here, is for the most part, woefully inadequate, unfortunately.
