CHANGES
ARE COMING ----
Whether these changes
are good or bad
depends in part on how
we adapt to them. But,
ready or not, here
they come
1. The Post Office.
Get ready to imagine a
world without the post
office. They are so
deeply in financial
trouble that there is
probably no way to
sustain it long term.
Email, Fed Ex, and UPS
have just about wiped
out the minimum
revenue needed to keep
the post office alive.
Most of your mail
every day is junk mail
and bills.
2. The Check.
Britain is
already laying the
groundwork to do away
with checks by 2018.
It costs the financial
system billions of
dollars a year to
process checks.
Plastic cards and
online transactions
will lead to the
eventual demise of the
check. This plays
right into the death
of the post office. If
you never paid your
bills by mail and
never received them by
mail, the post office
would absolutely go
out of business.
3. The Newspaper. The
younger generation
simply doesn't read
the newspaper. They
certainly don't
subscribe to a daily
delivered print
edition. That may go
the way of the milkman
and the laundry man.
As for reading the
paper online, get
ready to pay for it.
The rise in mobile
Internet devices and
e-readers has caused
all the newspaper and
magazine publishers to
form an alliance. They
have met with Apple,
Amazon, and the major
cell phone companies
to develop a model for
paid subscription
services.
4. The Book. You say
you will never give up
the physical book that
you hold in your hand
and turn the literal
pages. I said the same
thing about
downloading music from
iTunes. I wanted my
hard copy CD. But I
quickly changed my
mind when I discovered
that I could get
albums for half the
price without ever
leaving home to get
the latest music. The
same thing will happen
with books. You can
browse a bookstore
online and even read a
preview chapter before
you buy. And the price
is less than half that
of a real book. And
think of the
convenience! Once you
start flicking your
fingers on the screen
instead of the book,
you find that you are
lost in the story,
can't wait to see what
happens next, and you
forget that you're
holding a gadget
instead of a book.
5. The Land Line
Telephone. Unless you
have a large family
and make a lot of
local calls, you don't
need it anymore. Most
people keep it simply
because they've always
had it. But you are
paying double charges
for that extra
service. All the cell
phone companies will
let you call customers
using the same cell
provider for no charge
against your minutes
.
6. Music. This is one
of the saddest parts
of the change story.
The music industry is
dying a slow death.
Not just because of
illegal downloading.
It's the lack of
innovative new music
being given a chance
to get to the people
who would like to hear
it. Greed and
corruption is the
problem. The record
labels and the radio
conglomerates are
simply
self-destructing. Over
40% of the music
purchased today is
"catalog
items," meaning
traditional music that
the public is familiar
with. Older
established artists.
This is also true on
the live concert
circuit. To explore
this fascinating and
disturbing topic
further, check out the
book, "Appetite
for
Self-Destruction"
by Steve Knopper, and
the video documentary,
"Before the Music
Dies."
7. Television.
Revenues to the
networks are down
dramatically. Not just
because of the
economy. People are
watching TV and movies
streamed from their
computers. And they're
playing games and
doing lots of other
things that take up
the time that used to
be spent watching TV.
Prime time shows have
degenerated down to
lower than the lowest
common denominator.
Cable rates are
skyrocketing and
commercials run about
every 4 minutes and 30
seconds. I say good
riddance to most of
it. It's time for the
cable companies to be
put out of our misery.
Let the people choose
what they want to
watch online and
through Netflix.
8. The
"Things"
That You Own. Many of
the very possessions
that we used to own
are still in our
lives, but we may not
actually own them in
the future. They may
simply reside in
"the cloud."
Today your computer
has a hard drive and
you store your
pictures, music,
movies, and documents.
Your software is on a
CD or DVD, and you can
always re-install it
if need be. But all of
that is changing.
Apple, Microsoft, and
Google are all
finishing up their
latest "cloud
services." That
means that when you
turn on a computer,
the Internet will be
built into the
operating system. So,
Windows, Google, and
the Mac OS will be
tied straight into the
Internet. If you click
an icon, it will open
something in the
Internet cloud.. If
you save something, it
will be saved to the
cloud. And you may pay
a monthly subscription
fee to the cloud
provider.
In this virtual world,
you can access your
music or your books,
or your whatever from
any laptop or handheld
device. That's the
good news. But, will
you actually own any
of this
"stuff" or
will it all be able to
disappear at any
moment in a big
"Poof?" Will
most of the things in
our lives be
disposable and
whimsical? It makes
you want to run to the
closet and pull out
that photo album, grab
a book from the shelf,
or open up a CD case
and pull out the
insert.
9. Privacy. If there
ever was a concept
that we can look back
on nostalgically, it
would be privacy.
That's gone. It's been
gone for a long time
anyway. There are
cameras on the street,
in most of the
buildings, and even
built into your
computer and cell
phone. But you can be
sure that 24/7,
"They" know
who you are and where
you are, right down to
the GPS coordinates,
and the Google Street
View. If you buy
something, your habit
is put into a zillion
profiles, and your ads
will change to reflect
those habits. And
"They" will
try to get you to buy
something else. Again
and again.
All we will have that
can't be changed are
Memories.
19 Facts About The
Deindustrialization Of
America That
Will Blow Your Mind
The United
States is
rapidly becoming the
very first
"post-industrial"
nation on the globe.
All great economic
empires eventually
become fat and lazy
and squander the great
wealth that their
forefathers have left
them, but the pace at
whichAmerica is
accomplishing this is
absolutely amazing.
It was America
that was at the
forefront of the
industrial revolution.
It was America
that showed the world
how to mass produce
everything from
automobiles to
televisions to
airplanes. It
was the great American
manufacturing base
that crushed
Germany and
Japan in World
War II.
But now we are
witnessing the
deindustrialization of
America .
Tens of thousands of
factories have left
the United
States in the
past decade alone.
Millions upon millions
of manufacturing jobs
have been lost in the
same time period.
The United
States has
become a nation that
consumes everything in
sight and yet produces
increasingly little.
Do you know what our
biggest export is
today? Waste
paper. Yes,
trash is the number
one thing that we ship
out to the rest of the
world as we
voraciously blow our
money on whatever the
rest of the world
wants to sell to us.
The United
States has
become bloated and
spoiled and our
economy is now
just a shadow of what
it once was.
Once upon a time
America could
literally out produce
the rest of the world
combined. Today
that is no longer
true, but Americans
sure do consume more
than anyone else in
the world. If
the
deindustrialization of
America
continues at this
current pace, what
possible kind of a
future are we going to
be leaving to our
children?
Any great nation
throughout history has
been great at making
things. So if
the United
States continues
to allow its
manufacturing base to
erode at a staggering
pace how in the world
can the U.S.
continue to consider
itself to be a great
nation? We have
created the biggest
debt bubble in the
history of the world
in an effort to
maintain a very high
standard of living,
but the current state
of affairs is not
anywhere close to
sustainable.
Every single month
America does
into more debt and
every single month
America gets
poorer.
So what happens when
the debt bubble pops?
The
deindustrialization of
the United
States should be
a top concern for
every man, woman and
child in the country.
But sadly, most
Americans do not have
any idea what is going
on around them.
For people like that,
take this article and
print it out and hand
it to them.
Perhaps what they will
read below will shock
them badly enough to
awaken them from their
slumber.
The following are 19
facts about the
deindustrialization of
America that
will blow your
mind....
#1 The United States
has lost approximately
42,400 factories since
2001.. About 75
percent of those
factories employed
over 500 people when
they were still in
operation.
#2 Dell Inc., one of
America ’s largest
manufacturers of
computers, has
announced plans to
dramatically expand
its operations in
China with an
investment of over
$100 billion over the
next decade.
#3 Dell has announced
that it will be
closing its last large
U.S.
manufacturing facility
in Winston-Salem
, North Carolina
in November.
Approximately 900 jobs
will be lost.
#4 In 2008, 1.2
billion cell phones
were sold worldwide.
So how many of them
were manufactured
inside the
United States ?
Zero.
#5 According to a new
study conducted by the
Economic Policy
Institute, if the U.S.
trade deficit with
China continues to
increase at its
current rate, the U.S.
economy will lose over
half a million jobs
this year alone.
#6 As of the end of
July, the U.S.
trade deficit with
China had risen
18 percent compared to
the same time period a
year ago.
#7 The United States
has lost a total of
about 5.5 million
manufacturing jobs
since October 2000.
#8 According to Tax
Notes, between 1999
and 2008 employment at
the foreign affiliates
of U.S.
parent companies
increased an
astounding 30 percent
to 10.1 million.
During that exact same
time period,
U.S. employment
at American
multinational
corporations declined
8 percent to 21.1
million.
#9 In 1959,
manufacturing
represented 28 percent
of U.S.
economic output.
In 2008, it
represented 11.5
percent.
#10 Ford Motor Company
recently announced the
closure of a factory
that produces the Ford
Ranger in St.
Paul , Minnesota .
Approximately 750 good
paying middle class
jobs are going to be
lost because making
Ford Rangers
inMinnesota does not
fit in with Ford's new
"global"
manufacturing
strategy.
#11 As of the end of
2009, less than 12
million Americans
worked in
manufacturing.
The last time less
than 12 million
Americans were
employed in
manufacturing was in
1941.
#12 In the United
States today,
consumption accounts
for 70 percent of GDP.
Of this 70 percent,
over half is spent on
services.
#13 The United States
has lost a whopping 32
percent of its
manufacturing jobs
since the year 2000.
#14 In 2001, the
United States
ranked fourth in the
world in per capita
broadband Internet
use. Today it
ranks 15th.
#15 Manufacturing
employment in the
U.S. computer
industry is actually
lower in 2010 than it
was in 1975.
#16 Printed circuit
boards are used in
tens of thousands of
different products.
Asia now
produces 84 percent of
them worldwide.
#17 The United States
spends approximately
$3.90 on Chinese goods
for every $1 that the
Chinese spend on goods
from the United
States ..
#18 One prominent
economist is
projecting that the
Chinese economy will
be three times larger
than the U.S.
economy by the year
2040.
#19 The U.S. Census
Bureau says that 43.6
million Americans are
now living in poverty
and according to them
that is the highest
number of poor
Americans in the 51
years that records
have been kept.
So how many tens of
thousands more
factories do we need
to lose before we do
something about it?
How many millions more
Americans are going to
become unemployed
before we all admit
that we have a very,
very serious problem
on our hands?
How many more
trillions of dollars
are going to leave the
country before we
realize that we are
losing wealth at a
pace that is killing
our economy?
How many once great
manufacturing cities
are going to become
rotting war zones like
Detroit before
we understand that we
are committing
national economic
suicide?
The
deindustrialization of
America is a
national crisis.
It needs to be treated
like one.
If you disagree with
this article, I have a
direct challenge for
you. If anyone
can explain how a
deindustrialized
America has any
kind of viable
economic future,
please do so below in
the comments section.
America is in
deep, deep trouble
folks. It is
time to wake up and
realize that NAFTA,
trade agreements, taxes,
and unfavorable
business invironments have eliminated
jobs in the US, and
driven them South,
North, and to Europe
and Asia.
The
largest GM car
dealership in WV
closed because of new
regulations the
take-over of GM
included. It is
still closed.
