digitization nation

DIGITIZATION NATION
Before I begin to pontificate mightily today, two things. First, big hugs and little kisses to Jay on the Wrong Coast for your generous donation ( again ). Good luck with your move, it sounds like a winning decision. Second, check out www.urbansurvival.com as Ure exposes the sham of the Amero. Thank goodness I didn't get all worked up about that "threat" or I would look stupiderer than normal.
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I've threatened to theorize on our march towards digitalizing, and now I'm finally going to do it. I might be full of crap, I might be making a mountain out of a mole hill. But if nothing else, it will be fun and amusing to play "what if". Our nation was once, long long ago, the factory to the world. We made everything, and we made it darn good. It helped that we had the worlds largest oil reserves, a good supply of ore, plenty of coal and the waterways and other infrastructure to move things. We were also isolated from attack ( the Monroe Doctrine was all about securing the entire hemisphere, and the whole Cuban problem was either allowed to happen or signaled the start of our decline ). And of course way back then we had the freest country both politically and economically. Anyone advocating returning to those days of yesteryear had better explain how to get all that back first. I have no good explanation why we gave all that up, other than we were forced to. The start of the end of our oil extraction ( prior to 1971 we continued to pump more every year which automatically translated into growth, after that our production stayed flat or declined other than a short blip with Alaskan oil and lack of growth is the same as decline in our economy ).
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However, along with the brake on growth through oil peak, we also had the attraction to the financial interests that the end of industrialization brought. Extracting resources and producing goods brings a low margin of profit and it takes a whole lot of investment. And that investment was also vulnerable to sabotage. So there was the whole worker payoff in the form of Unions and living wages. Those concessions from the corporates and bankers and government were nothing more than bribes to safeguard the factory investment ( only agreed to after military crack downs failed in that regard ). Best to just do away with it all, a lot less of a headache. So then your behind the scenes Japanese steel industry support starts paying dividends. First it is used as a way to counter socialist tendencies in the government, to keep Soviet influence down ( we won't touch the whole issue of possible central bank support of the Nazi's and Soviets to keep this from getting more complicated than I can handle in one hour ) and then you have a scapegoat for the laid off factory worker to blame.
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Now, we couldn't just go total dictatorship back then like we are today. How to appease most of the population by creating the illusion of a private sector economy? Digitize the whole thing. Here is a decades long process that creates economic activity out of thin air, does away with industry that we can't support because of lack of energy to grow the sector. Along the way you creates jobs that pay a lot less and create a fabled "service" sector that allows a lot more jobs to be turned over to government control. Or eliminated entirely. You expand the welfare sector to keep all non workers consuming and content. Buying off the ghettos during the 60's unrest worked so well, you can expand it to a trailer park near your Congressman. By digitalizing you keep the peace, socialize the costs businesses used to pay, force governments to create deficits to run so they pay more to the banks, and create financial activity everywhere there used to be none.
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Now, while I'm including small scale computerization here, the big pay off was by converting the financial sector over. Yes, you now are able to substitute chips for steel in autos. Personal computers for printing presses. Eyes in space are cheaper than aircraft on the ground in warfare. Smart missiles use less explosives and metal to do the same job. ATM's replace brick and mortar and tellers. PC's replace secretaries. Computerized registers replace some cashiers. Bar codes replace inventory personnel. Smart thermostats save energy. Etc. All great, but the big enchilada was digitalizing the markets. At first it was great to have the room size reel to reel type monster add a few zeros rather than print out paper currency. But that was still chump change. The birth of the derivatives market was the engine that created trillions of dollars in wealth ( while creating a cool quadrillion in down side risk on a global economy of only thirty trillion ). Okay, I've compressed the process a bit. It was a slow but steady type of thing. But I'm sure you get the point.
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While it's cool to visualize a back room filled with smoke and scheming fat cats, I'm sure the natural run of events was a lot less ordered or planned. I'm sure it was mostly trial and error, responding to a problem with an expedient compromise, taking advantage of opportunity. But isn't it a bit of a coincidence otherwise how our economy was disbanded and disabled, and all the wealth flowed toward one group, the bankers? Computers, while first seeming to be able to decentralize and free us, now seem to be the means of our bondage. On a personal level, as our jobs were taken over by computers. As our vulnerabilities increased, from overseas parts suppliers to just in time inventory. As government enslaved future generations with deficits used to pacify the welfare masses. As banks ruined our currency playing with the global casino. The computer was a tool used to ruin us. The Internet allows our voices to be drowned much quicker and cheaper ( allow everyone the printing press and no one every finds or believes one voice in many ). As it ties us to the grid for easier control.
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I could go on, but we're out of time today boys and girls. Thanks to this tool of oppression, your one of millions voice of doom.
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