Friday, August 19, 2011

"Post-industrial countries"

There's been talk about the severe trade-imbalance between the West and the East. In short, dollars are not real, and the East is producing most of the real artefacts of the world now by far, very little is being made in the west, and some say that has disaster written all over it.

William Gibson the writer commented about how we are living in the West in a "post-industrial" society. And that is clear, the bulk of the industry has moved out of US and Europe. And like he says: if we no longer make things, what is it we do, exactly? And whatever it is, is it sustainable in the long run?

20 comments:

TC [Girl] said...

We "build" "clouds" and "wireless"...EVERYTHINGs and help spread the "fast food nation," globally. :-/

We are asked to be "consumers" of EVERYTHING (and I think we "reign"...especially in the gadgets department!) while also being advised to reduce our debt and save for our own retirement...while there don't seem to be enough jobs to go around! I think we out to be Magicians! :-D

I also think our "claim to fame," pretty soon, will be that we flip hamburgers in fast food joints and are career students trying to get ahead...for LIFE because, as we train for our 100K degrees, the industry becomes obsolete! :-P

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Like president Bartlett of West Wing said:
"sure we want people to save up, but we want them to do it while the other guy is president."
The inference being that spending wild is good for the present debt-based economy, while saving up is only good in the long run, and nobody in politics gets popular working on that!

TC [Girl] said...

Good point! Yes...next year is "election" year so...running as scheduled! ;-)

TC [Girl] said...

(BTW...speaking of Martin Sheen! lol! :-D

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Oh yeah, didn't even notice.
He's great as the president. I still plan to watch the first four seasons of WW again, I really liked it. Outstanding writing, and often very funny.

Later they lost creator/head writer Aaron Sorkin, and the quality fell markedly.

TC [Girl] said...

Funny...I never watched it. Prob 'cuz I'm not much of a political "animal." :-) Perhaps I'll watch an episode, someday, just to see what it's like. Oddly, I have always really liked Martin Sheen...unlike someone else in his family! (I know you liked him in '2 1/2 Men')

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

I'm really un-interested in politics too, I couldn't tell you who's prime minister back in DK. So it surprised me to find WW so entertaining.

TC [Girl] said...

Is it the girls or the humor?

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

The humor, it's actually not so densely populated by hot women.
Also, the stories often touch on very interesting points, but are not preachy.

TC [Girl] said...

Uh. All very interesting to note (an actual t.v. show where "hot women" isn't the "main event?!" [gasp!] ;-)

Thanks. Now, I'm very curious, of course! :-D

Alex said...

I just spent a year designing software for cameras to be mass produced in China and sold to replace cameras people bought last year.

I'm now working on making TV broadcast equipment that will help with on-demand delivery of video content to your portable devices, distributing content from the cloud.

My friends who used to also make video cameras until the parent company laid us all off are now making iPhones, robotic vacuum cleaners, telepresence/video conferencing equipment, wearable video cameras, touch sensors for cell phone, video chips for cellphones/tablets/PCs, Amazons top secret project, NAS drives and routers to get your content off the cloud. (I don't know anyone currently at Tesla).

So we are still making lots of real things here in the US, or at least designing them so the Chinese can make them for us.

Come to think of it, that's all here in one little area. What's the rest of the country doing apart from farming, banking, and the service industry?

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

My best guess is "entertainment", in the broadest definition. And "service", of course, although that's amazingly broad.

How do you design a camera specifically to replace last year's model?

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

I don't guess your friend has leaked any cool data about any Amazon tablet!?

TC [Girl] said...

LOL! FUNNY you!! You get to WAIT for an entire MONTH, like the rest of the world!! :-D (I wonder if it could sell near the numbers that the Pad does at new rev!! Like most, they've already got "the last new one" - iPhone, Kindle, etc., etc. - so...perhaps they won't fly off the shelf as the Padster has, either! Oh and...keep reading re: [yet another] supposed recession that we're headed into?! Most, around the country, might, possibly, be standing in soup kitchen lines...talking to and texting their friends on the last iPhone model! :-/

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

How can you watch Twitter for job opportunities 24/7 without your trusty iPhone?

I think there'll be a new one announced in about three weeks.

I don't know when any new Amazon models comes, but they've gotta have out well before December for the "holiday season".

Anonymous said...

Without the farmers there wouldn't be anything for those nerds to eat. Alex seems bitter that the rest of the world doesn't value the work of computer programmers. Well, they are really the slaves of the rest of us. When guys like that were in high school, as they were getting their daily swirly, they thought it would all be worthwhile one day. I guess it didn't quite work out that way.

TC [Girl] said...

Eolake said...
"How can you watch Twitter for job opportunities 24/7 without your trusty iPhone?"

Oh, yes! How SILLY of me: a person needs a [several hundreds of dollars] iPhone w/a data plan (included just for you; thought you'd get a kick outta that! :-) that's out-of-this-world expensive, rather than a [as you, yourself, have called them] "dumb" phone w/a $15/month data plan & a $60/month voice plan (that's expensive enough, methinks!) to be able to do same!

"I think there'll be a new one announced in about three weeks."

Goody for Apple! lol! ;-)

"I don't know when any new Amazon models comes, but they've gotta have out well before December for the "holiday season"."

I didn't realize that Amazon even sold iPhones! Figures! The US would be SO SCREWED if Amazon went down! :-/

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

No, with Amazon I was talking about tablets/ereaders. I don't see why they would make a phone.

TC [Girl] said...

Ya...I was wondering about that...since I thought that we were talking iPhones in the last comment. ;-)

TC [Girl] said...

Just read this article. Thought you might like to read it, as well.