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Information Economy?! |
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. Mr. Clinton's elf, Mr. Robert Reich, crept onto my television again the other day. He was struggling to educate me about the problems that we've (I've?) createdfor us in our country's economy. He keeps saying we're (I'm) ignorant, not well enough educated to survive in this new, global free trade, Information Economy!
...Well!
I've got to admit that my education, acquired in public schools supervised and regulated by the Democratic Party's, United States Department of Education, is limited. I did, however, study economics in school. It wasn't my idea; they made me do it!
It's been a long time ago, but it seems I remember that the three basic and essential products of any broad-based economy are food, clothing and shelter. I don't recall anything about information being a basic product. Of course things have changed since my school daze.
I've been thinking about this for a couple of weeks, now. I suppose that if I could somehow crawl into my RAM, or maybe the C Drive of my 486, I wouldn't need food or clothing. I could work and play in my data, and the Internet. Sounds like fun, huh? Well, maybe not!
Without food, my old body's going to die, but I guess I won't need it any more anyway. But, who's going to fix the roof so it doesn't rain on the machine I live in, and short me out. If everybody's living inside a machine, what happens if my computer has to be fixed, and the part that broke is in the CPU or the modem?
Eeeeahhh, paranoia!
More of my economics courses is now returning to my dulled and ignorant, scared but still operative mind. Information technology is not a basic product of an economy. Oh no, it's just a tool for use in producing food, clothing, shelter, or other tools used to assist in the production of the basic elements of our survival. They can be used for pleasure and leisure activities, but under no circumstances can they form part of the basic foundation of a viable and independent economy.
The words viable and independent are important! Only a fool wouldconsider himself so smart that he, his family, and his nation could survive for very long, if they could not feed, clothe andshelter themselves. No amount of education can transform a fool into a wise individual. No great truth or wisdom has ever been handed down from fools or by fools, even to fools.
As I already feared, most of the problems we now face lie in our government. Mr. Reich is at best a fool, at worst simply a fraud. If the current strategy of this country is to produce more like him, we're not going to have much of a future. This nation is not a product of elitist Phd's. It was built by intelligent, hard working people who had vision and insight. Many, if not most of those who participated in accomplishing that great feat, had little or no formal education at all!
Let us ignorant louts recognize Mr. Reich, his half-baked philosophies, and his bosses, as the embodiment of failed leadership that they really are. We must soon take responsible actions to remedy the problems of this country before it's too late, and we actually wind up stuck in the nightmare of some sort of doomed, Information Economy, indeed!
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