Don't let them scare you away... C++ is fine if you use what you need and take the time to actually understand the tools you're using.

If you think "collapsed" is a legitimate description of the present state of the American economy, I tremble to contemplate the words you would use to describe, say, Zimbabwe's.

Edit: That, alone, is a tad too much snark with a tad too little data for me to leave it unadorned in good conscience. Here's a couple points of interest:

  1. In 2003, the Zimbabwean economy shrunk by 18 percent.
  2. In 2008, the estimated inflation rate in Zimbabwe was 231 000 000 percent.
  3. By late 2008, official statistics put that at 516 quintillion percent
  4. The Zimbabwean Dollar officially ceased to exist on 1 July, 2009
     (quoth Wikipedia; I'm not making this up).

America's doing just dandy, all things considered.

Edit again: On a non-economic front, it might be interesting to note that Zimbabwe's life expectancy is in the mid-30s for both sexes.