Couldn't resist posting this. Your typical smartphone now includes a built-in computer, TV, CD player, DVD player, stereo, still camera, video camera, video editor, photo editor, darkroom, phone, typewriter, calculator, radio, inertial guidance system, GPS, complete maps of the world, global library, encyclopedia, interpreter, newspapers, magazines, photo albums, rolodex, video games, multiple listing services, accounting services, remote controls, barcode scanner, portfolio management, stock ticker, travel agency, medical reference library, stargazer, mail-order catalogs, flight simulator, textbooks, math tutor, alarm clock, weather station ... . This would have been inconceivable just 10 years ago. HT: Mark Perry.
The irony is that all consumer electronics used in the US are manufactured in Asia -- the electronics that are still manufactured in the US are defense related electronics -- the more the US consumes electronics, the poorer we become -- sort of like imported oil...
ReplyDeleteThis is why an unhealthy obsession--a peevish fixation--on reported inflation is no longer productive, if it ever was.
ReplyDeleteReally, inflation?
Or deflation?
What is the device that Scott Grannis just described worth?
10 years ago, some people would have paid $50,000 grand for such a device. Our US Government used to pay $100k and up for devices that did just a portion of what the the modern-day cell phone does.
Yet, we still have people obsessed with inflation, fearful of the microscopic reported rate and fretting about much worse to come.
It is a sickness.
Oddly enough, for today's environment, Milton Friedman prescribed printing more money. He advised that when inflation and interest rates trended towards zero, which they are.
The problem today is deflation. Our living standards are higher than ever---but there is a huge shortage of demand.
Print (digitize) more money.
@Benjamin, the evidence supporting your contention of rampant deflation along Main Street includes: a) declining real working wages; b) declining real home values; and c) a declining employment-to-population ratio -- these three measures provide evidentiary support for your deflation claim.
ReplyDeletePS: Regretfully, the big government Democrats and military-industrial Republicans have propagandized Main Street USA into believing inflation our nation's challenge -- the reality is that the military-industrial complex, Wall Street, and Federal workers are at risk of extinction should significant inflation kick-in -- thus, Federalists and its sponsors will continue to make the case for the inflation threat, even while Main Street USA continues to be ravaged by the effects of deflation as evidenced above in my first paragraph.
PPS: Most Americans have very little to lose from inflation, and much to gain -- however, anyone dependent on government entitlements and pensions, fixed income investments, or subsidy income (which includes the military-industrial complex, the medical establishment, and farm establishment) are terrified of inflation -- it's time for America to return to its roots along Main Street USA.
PPPS: The future of America will be Libertarianism, or bust...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.lp.org
Good posting
ReplyDeleteThe future of America will be Libertarianism, or bust...
ReplyDeletewhile I would love to see the latter I fear the former is a far greater likelihood. voters will NOT vote for austerity anytime soon
Advanced technology hasn't done the US any good. Just making them dumber with shorter attention span. Instead of reading, morons watch Youtube and communicate faster.
ReplyDeleteTechnology is meant to optimize society to become more efficient. When you have a moronic base it is wasted.
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Ray Kurzweil at Tucson Technology Conference
ReplyDelete"A kid in Africa has more technology at his disposal than the president of the United States did 15 years ago."
The irony is that every single one of those technologies was the product of taxpayer-funded government research. And not even always from OUR government.
ReplyDeleteCapitalism rarely "creates" anything of value (too much risk and investment), rather it finds and innovates new ways to use and wring profit from preexisting technologies into which more socially-derived and subsidized value has already been sunk.
Superabound: I think you will find an awful lot of people who disagree with you, including me.
ReplyDeleteEven in the few cases in which government has pioneered a new technology (e.g., internet), private sector capitalists have perfected it brought it to the masses in ways the government could never have imagined.