Some of the major technological marvel of today’s world are not doing much to create new jobs.  They’ll bring big gains but without putting too many people back to work,  IT specialists of the right kind excluded.

The internet is wonderful, but it’s not saving the revenue-generating sector of the economy.

The forward march of technology has indeed continued, but it’s giving us Twitter and better painkillers and some life extension when we are old and sick.  And I love Twitter and I’ll probably value those painkillers, too, once I need them.  We’re living the age-old wish of getting away from money, money, money and finding some of our biggest innovative successes in sectors that are good for us but not revenue intensive.  We’re getting away from materialism, at least in some critical regards.  We may still lust after the fancy car, but I see a lot of people looking inward.  They are taking lower-paying but more interesting jobs, which offer a greater sense of challenge and control.  I see a lot of well-off people cruising the Web, and cherishing their Twitter feed, rather than shopping for diamonds.

The funny thing is, getting away from materialism on such a large scale- whatever the virtues of that switch- really, really hurts.  It is the hurt that we in America are living right now.

From The Great Stagnation-  How America Ate All the Low-Hanging Fruit of Modern History, Got Sick, and Will (Eventually) Feel Better by Tyler Cowen.

HKO Comments:

I have often wondered what happens when all those people at the malls of America realize that they do not need most of the expensive stuff they have been buying.  (Of course MY stuff is another thing altogether.)  Our economy is not just about realizing that we built too many houses we do not need; our credit contraction is about realizing we do not need a bunch of other stuff.  As Tyler Cowen writes, the core of the financial collapse is that we were not as rich as we thought we were.

As the consumer faces that reality he cuts back and changes his habits.  The government would be wise to do the same.

Whether the means is to increase government spending or to cut taxes, if the objective is to stimulate a demand that was false to begin with then it will fail.  We are trying to return to a normal that was never normal at all.

An economy and a government that is built on revenue growth is extremely threatened by a reduction in materialism.

I find that following and being followed by a few thousand people on Twitter gives one a certain feel of the pulse of the electorate. I realize that most of my followers are right of center, thought I aim to get beyond left and right.

I have a few rules of who I follow. I avoid personal coaches, anybody blatantly selling anything, religious zealots, and language that crosses the line from information and opinion to vile hatred.

The right is angry. They largely attack the president for his policies. They are upset about the Ben Nelson payoff, the special deal to the union on health care, the deficit, etc.

Some twitterers may have more substance than others. But while the right is angry the left is often just downright nasty.  I try to find left of center sources, but this is typical of one leftist Twitterer that I just unfollowed.  These are excerpts from just one page of his posts:

“conservative assholes”

“spout lies”

“RACIST ASS”

“raped and pillaged this country” (Republicans)

“hateful racist worthless piece of shit”

“I’d vote your ass to a cemetery, you shitbag”

“You fucking idiot.”

“You’re a piece of shit.”

This Twitterer has over a thousand followers and follows many more. He claims to be retired.   I have thousands of followers and I have yet to see one of the conservative Twitterers  as vile as the one I am spotlighting.  It is not an isolated example.

These people suck any intelligence out of the political debate.

1.      blaming economic crises on “greed” is like blaming plane crashes on gravity.- Thomas Sowell

2.      “crony capitalism” is to capitalism what National Socialism (Nazism) is to socialism- hko

3.      ‘Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow for those who do not.’

4.      Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies.  Groucho Marx

5.      The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it.- Mencken

6.      the government is no more capable of creating wealth than a hall of mirrors is capable of creating people- Peter Schiff

7.      We always rediscover basic principles after we learn the cost of ignoring them

8.      I never hear the word “community” to justify fiscal responsibility; only to rationalize the opposite.- HKO

9.      What truly breeds discontent is the illusion that Government can solve all of our problems.- R. Samuelson

10.  The problem is that most of those claiming to have the right answer don’t even know the right question.- HKO

11.  “A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.” Edward R. Murrow

12.  the biggest threat to business in America is liberal democrats and populist republicans

13.  Not every short term crisis requires a long term solution.

14.  18 of the last thirty medical Nobel Prize winners were American- yet our health care system is broken?

15.  “Every snowflake pleads innocent, but it’s still an avalanche.”

16.  Arrogance and ignorance is a dangerous combination

17.  “There is no difference in the ultimate fate of all chained economies, regardless of any alleged justifications for the chains.” Ayn Rand

18.  It is comforting in times of stress to go back to the fairy tales we heard as children, but it doesn’t make them less false.  John Cochrane

19.  Skepticism is the price knowledge pays for truth

20.  You do not win with an exit plan; you exit with a victory plan.-  HKO

21.  “I see as much misery from them that seek to justify themselves as from them that seek to do harm.” from HBO’s Deadwood.

By far the most retweeted posting I ever posted

50 reasons to Oppose Cap and Trade- great article! http://bit.ly/4bN7D0

10 surprising facts about American Health Care http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba649

Now who are the deniers http://bit.ly/7TxYjb

Obama’s has the least private sector experience of any president since 1900- by far- http://blog.american.com/?p=7572

Evita Obama http://bit.ly/UF6EU Michelle Obama has 26 attendants at a cost of $1,750,000. Laura Bush made do with 16.

I am a recovering twitternizer.

Twitternize is a word I made up; it is a combination of the words Twitter and patronize.

To twitternize is to play to your Twitter audience by either posting an entry you think the Twitter readers will like even if you do not agree with it or to avoid a subject you do believe in because you are afraid you will lose precious followers.

For example if you are a constant source of right of center political commentary and your followers almost all come from the right side of the spectrum and you want to post an entry critical of Sarah Palin you may be concerned that many of your followers are likely Sarah Palin followers and will drop you for trashing their right wing darling. You are so concerned over losing followers you decide not to post the criticism.

I finally realized that the broad freedom to share ideas with an unlimited supply of twitterers is worthless if I am to avoid topics or opinions that will cause followers to drop me.  My goal is not to collect the most number of followers. It is counterproductive to be so concerned with losing followers that I censor myself to appease narrow minded ideologues even if they lean conservative and may be a follower of my blog.

If one of my posting loses a follower because of content so be it. If you find my postings and thoughts worthy of following even if you disagree with some of them, then I am proud to call you a follower and I will be proud to follow you.