Kiplinger Newsletter July 1, 2011

July 7, 2011

This is the recent issue of the Kiplinger newsletter on trends.

The information on “virtual currency” underscores why we do not need Wall Street.

As Alvin and Heidi Toffler argue in the 2006 Revolutionary Wealth the Internet allows us to bypass the Wall Street vampires. The current banks, stock brokers, and stock markets are leftovers from the old dying Industrial Age. These “middle men” now produce nothing and the Internet makes them obsolete.

The section on the lack of computer science grads in this country is the result of two trends:

1. American society no longer has the discipline to turn out graduates in math and related fields like engineering because math demands disciplined learning. The inmates now run the asylums called schools.

The rot sadly is making itself felt more and more in “higher” education. My sister over the weekend told us about students at her “college” in Milwaukee who literally cannot multiply by 2 – with Milwaukee high school diplomas! They also do not know that there is a difference between centimeters and inches. And yet the constant chant is more money for schools, education!

What is doubly sad about this situation where my sister teaches, and elsewhere likely, is her “students” are training to be medical technicians! Imagine! They cannot do simple division and they are going to prepare medications for patients.

2. Also, given the economic terrorism in this country, why would somebody want to be an engineer when you can be an investment banker and steal millions from people – and not have to produce a single tangible product, service in the process?

Get your M.B.A. and you are on your way to looting the economy for billions. Why would you want to produce something real when you can flim-flam “gazillions” of dollars? China produces. American gambles. Engineers produce. Banksters, stock brokers, investment gurus gamble. We see the toxic results.

Moreover, America may no longer be the first choice of persons with high-tech skills as a place to live and work. The current push to carry concealed firearms and firearms openly in public will hasten the exodus of such skilled people from the U.S.A. to places like Canada that control weapons. See Richard Florida’s study The Flight of the Creative Class (2007) for detailed information on this.