CrossRoads:
I've often thought of just leaving the FTDI chip & part off and gluing a part like this onto the board instead,
http://www.ebay.com/itm/USB-2-0-TTL-UART-6PIN-Module-Serial-Converter-CP2102-/290643946254?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43abbaab0e
(Hey look at that, right from Boston too)
that would lower the cost as well.
Wow that's cheap! Yeah, I would leave it off. The normal route is get an FTDI cable or a breakout board from Sparkfun. The thing is, you only need as many FTDI chips as you want to have units connected to the computer at once. Putting them on every board is BOM waste, IMO.