You are working under the assumption that the economy will continue to be based on scarcity. Robots will remove the scarcity constraint. Economics describes how to use supply and demand curves to arrive at a single market prices. Each additional unit of supply decreases the price by a marginal amount. If you have no bounds on supply then the price drops to zero. Prices do not go up with robots. Instead supply of goods goes up and demand goes down. There is a lot of unused land on Earth. Robots can build habitation in unused places. Supply of housing skyrockets. Price of housing goes down. We are going to have to make some fundamental changes in how we structure our economy in order for our society to survive that change. Also, robots kill people. That reduces demand.
Raw materials will be the biggest bottleneck. With all of the production available the biggest problem will be what to do with old product models and other unwanted goods. Recycling and disassembly and will be a tremendously huge component of our future economy. China is already way ahead of us on that front. Many obsolete electronic components already are shipped to China where the precious metals and other components are harvested from the high tech refuse. This process currently produces a lot of toxic waste and is polluting China, but they have a lot of land to pollute. Robots will be able to do this more cheaply and cleanly. And even if it isn't cleaner, the robots won't care about the toxic environment. Robots have also been know to disassemble humans -- but I've already covered that fact.
Space is too big to explore. Humans simply do not live long enough. We could send robots out to explore for us, but it will be many, many generations before we get any results back. Still, it is probably a good long term strategy. At some point, resource and space usage on Earth will have turned it something resembling a big ball of swiss cheese. At that point we will want to find a few other pieces of dirt to call home. The robots can prepare those new homes for us centuries in advance.
Damn you Alan! Technology, of course, plastic robots in space that are made in China. Perfect!
Of course I've had this discussion before, and the stickler is what technology will develop the schematics to get the Venture Capital? Will it be the auto industry that is bringing us bigger, better, and safer gas combustion engines on wheels? Will it be the space age technology that first strapped a monkey to a rocket and blasted it into space, or the same technology that made the rocket ship look more like an airplane? How about that Segway guy? He can make a robot on his own dime to be told the city of San Francisco won't let the robots on public streets or sidewalks.
I know what you're thinking; you're thinking computer technology can make all kinds of very pretty charts and graphs. The CAD programs brought us mass produced housing plans to be rubber stamped by our municipalities. I remember when that plan was going to bring down the price of housing. What happened with that?
If robots are made of plastic, then they will be unable to self replicate fast enough due to the limitations of the raw materials on this planet. But if robots are not made of plastic the potential for a republican robot army are huge. World demand for conservative plastic robots is inversely proportional to the demand for non-plastic liberal alien robots, which makes sense if you consider that diamonds are going up in price along with gold and other raw materials. It's the curve, stupid!
We can all make four hundred and fifty nine million dollars three hundred and fourteen thousand five hundred dollars if we can capitalize on the trends in diamonds, real estate and plastic conservative robots. The changes in our demographics will ensure that we will self limit and ultimately destroy ourselves but not before we're all insanely wealthy from real estate and/or running a cleaning firm. You can call me crazy but at least I know what I'm talking about and are not going to work for the man forever and instead will have legions of plastic robots working for me.
But what I think you fail to consider is the surprising reliance of the worlds petrol industry on silicone transistors. With so many billions of transistors, constantly getting faster and faster, it is only a matter of time before the keyboards of the world overheat, throwing the platform oil rigs into chaos and turning society back to the feudal era. With all of the heat generated from the silicone and the keyboards, we will at least be able to heat our homes however. That is to say, those of us that own homes.
For the rest of the slobs, the permanent renters among you, the transistor crisis will result in a resurgence of roofing materials, which consequently will bring down the price of the basic food stock, so you will be able to feed yourselves, but under substandard (the new standard) shelter.
All of this means that without a new cooling technology, the conservation of bodily fluids will ultimately be pointless, since children or no, the amount of food will be limited by the number of keystrokes the oil drill foreman is able to type on his under siliconed computer.
Yesterday I was talking with a gentleman whose wife is from Cambodia. You remember, the country we weren't at war with but we bombed the hell out of. The United States didn't rebuild it.
Anyway, housing there is very cheap. The people need money and your retirement dollars would go a long way there.
This couple has sponsored six people to come here from Cambodia and the have all become citizens. Those people will sponsor as many as they can to come here and become citizens.
The question is why Seattle Washington? Why has Seattle Washington become a hub for international trade?
I pulled this in a one minute Google search about China buying United States debt. The writer mentions both India and China as major players in the world market. What is it that makes China and India such strong economic forces? Plastics?
My thought is that they are taking all of those low paying jobs from our economy and doing them for even less pay. Population is it's own economic force. I never hear about the tech sector of India making advances we never heard of. I never hear innovation as a reason why China can have trillions of dollars in reserves. All I ever hear is that they have a work force, huge factories that need oil, and absolute government control.
You see, the problem with plastics is that they're made with oil. Oil comes out of the ground and they aren't making anymore land so there will be less and less oil available to make plastics.
However, there are other sources of oil. Anybody that has ever been a teenager has experienced a phase in life where your face produces oil non-stop. This could help mitigate the oil problem, but since more and more people using condoms to preserve precious bodily fluids there are fewer and fewer children being born which means fewer teenagers.
Even robots need oil to generate the electricity they run on.
So what will be our future savior? The same as always, the sun.
Solar cells will provide all of the energy we'll need to power robots and plastics recycling centers. While they aren't making any more land, they are constantly making more sunlight. The dissapointing thing is that a solar world economy won't change the balance of power at all. Right now we are dependent on terrorist countries for their oil. And which regions get tons of sunlight (just ask any Iraq war vet)? That's right, the middle east.
You see you guys, you got nothing. Nothing. Tell me about the Bears and Stearn thing again. That was funny.
We're here in the United States of America. We have food, water, and shelter, by the thousands of units to hear you all tell it, and the United States government is keeping it all safe and secure just for you.
You guys are the last hold outs of renters who are so smart you didn't buy a house. Now when prices are crashing you can step in and save the day.
I got news for ya, there's a much bigger picture. There are millions of people who want to come here and buy a house no matter what it costs. There are millions of people in the world that would just like to eat out of your garbage can.
These same people have multiple degrees from Universities that make your education look like high school. They study hard for just a chance at having more than one meal a day. You guys are talking about not having a house like it's a badge of courage. Come on show me some guts here. Show me where my theories are wrong.
You guys are talking about not having a house like it's a badge of courage. Come on show me some guts here. Show me where my theories are wrong.
Well, lets see. RE Prices in 95% of the country are falling. I have yet to see a story about a 3rd world denizen with a post-graduate degree bailing out an effed borrower. Maybe I have been reading the wrong blogs?
This morning I met with an export consultant and a gentleman from Viet Nam to discuss sending U.S goods to Viet Nam. The conversation ended in the same way many other conversations have ended. The bottom, bottom line is that anyone can own property in the United States as long as they pay taxes.
The consultant ended his brokerage spiel by suggesting the gentleman from Viet Nam sell commercial properties to foriegn investors. You don't have to live here to invest here.
As I said this isn't the first time I've sat in on these meetings. The guy comes in looking to export medical equipment and ends up getting the America is a bargain speech. I didn't set it up, I don't solicit this type of client; it's a pain in the ass trying to explain the American way of doing business.
Think about it for two minutes. If the Euro is stronger and the Dollar is weaker where would you, as an investor prefer to put your money? As I understand it the conversion to Euros devasted huge segments of affordable housing across Europe. The housing market there, in my opinion, has become homogenized. Fortunes have been made by individuals who invested in Greece, around Athens when it was very reasonably priced. Today with the strong Euro being the trading currency those same places are worth the price of the dirt plus the revalued currency.
As an investor cashing in where would you prefer to put your money for future appreciation?
As far as the visas go, in my personal opinion, there are millions of illegal Chinese who have walked across the Canadian border unnoticed. The United States has such a fetish for keeping out the people from Mexico, South, or Central America that our Northern border is a joke. It just seems strange to me that people from other countries can come here with nothing, buy houses, cars, and start over. What's really strange is that in ten to fifteen years many of these people have amassed small fortunes and own property free and clear.
Now I'm more than willing to agree about the housing scheme of Henderson Nevada, or discuss how stupid people were to invest in Arizona when it has been a volitile market since I can remember. Seattle Washington seems a pretty safe bet by comparison. In the world market place it just seems to me that Seattle has been passed over for years in favor of San Francisco. I live in the Hispanic community and have heard all of the stories about how the great Mexican migration is pushing values of California. Seattle however is different.
You guys all talk about the Japanese housing bubble like the in country investing is what propped up that market up. I would suggest that in 1990 there was a flight of dollars away from Asia in preparation of China taking over Hong Kong. I've heard a lot of those dollars ended up in Vancouver B.C. I've also heard that Canada's liberal immigration policies attracted many people from India.
A very simple premise of the internet business model is that if every person from around the world gave a dollar to one business via the internet that company would be rich. The legend is that one guy asked for a dollar donation and made millions. By shear volume of there are more billionaires today than I couild have ever imagined as a kid starting out. I still think it's a numbers game and the numbers are headed this direction.
Robots are an interesting concept to the human condition around the world. They can be the play things of the wealthy without crossing the line of slave trade. In France there was a push about a decade ago to allow immigration for those people who would do the jobs the French thought were beneath them. Today the new president of France is promising to resolve the problem of immigration.
You might also remember that France had a campaign a few years ago to promote the French, the true French, to make more babies. It's really not by mistake that DNA testing is mentioned in passing in the article above. There is actually an underground political movement to make France for the French people. Sound familiar?
There are millions of people who want to come here and buy a house no matter what it costs. There are millions of people in the world that would just like to eat out of your garbage can .... Show me where my theories are wrong.
I can't believe I'm reading this, much less RESPONDING to it, but it seems to me that people who want to eat out of my garbage can are going to have a hard time getting financing.
Sorry to be away so long, as you all know the Real estate market is extremely busy right now. There is so much money sloshing around it's hard to figure what to buy or sell next.
Here's what's insane, absolutely insane, is a bunch of college educated people talking about how bad the United States and Global economies are. The housing market pobably made as many millionaires as the dot com boom did.
Here's another news flash, people don't need to buy air plane tickets to come here. People walk across the border every day. People leave thier countries by raft, refugee camp, half track, or drive anything that will move. In some parts of the world other than in the United States of America people ride horses, camels, or mules. Isn't that funny?
You guys are so smart. How long would it take a ten year old boy in India to run here? To answer the absolutely insane idiot that would even speculate about this; How many people in a village or family would have to contribute to send a person here by plane? Better yet; How long would a person have to work at McDonalds to buy the next plane ticket for the next family member?
Here's what's insane, absolutely insane, is a bunch of college educated people talking about how bad the United States and Global economies are. The housing market pobably made as many millionaires as the dot com boom did.
By boom, do you mean bubble?
So listen up everybody. My good friend David has reassured me that the dotcom crash was actually a boom, and therefore any market gains you've made on real estate are safe. And the people rejoice.
Did you think I meant the United States Space Program?
Japan Lunar Probe Reaches Orbit
By ERIC TALMADGE, Associated Press Writer
Thu Oct 4, 10:34 PM
TOKYO - Japan put its first satellite into orbit around the moon Friday, placing the country a step ahead of China and India in an increasingly heated space race in Asia.
The probe was set into lunar orbit after completing a complicated navigational maneuver late Thursday, space agency officials said. The probe will gradually move into orbit closer to the surface to the moon before conducting a yearlong observational mission.
"We believe this is a big step," said project manager Yoshisada Takizawa. "Everything is going well and we are confident."
Though four years off schedule, the mission comes at a crucial time for Japan.
China is expected to launch its own moon probe by the end of the year, and India is to follow with an unmanned lunar mission in 2008.
Japanese officials claim the $279 million Selenological and Engineering Explorer _ or SELENE _ is the largest lunar mission since the U.S. Apollo program in terms of overall scope and ambition, outpacing the former Soviet Union's Luna program and NASA's Clementine and Lunar Prospector projects.
The mission involves placing the main satellite _ called "Kaguya," after a legendary moon princess _ in a circular orbit at an altitude of about 60 miles and deploying two smaller satellites in elliptical orbits, according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA.
Researchers will use data gathered by the probes to study the moon's origin and evolution. Takizawa said it will begin its observation phase in mid- to late-December.
"The timing was very delicate," he said at a news conference in JAXA's Tokyo headquarters via a video link from the mission command center south of the capital. "It was important to the completion of the mission, and it was successful."
Japan launched its first satellite in 1970 but is now struggling to keep up with rival China.
Japan launched a moon probe in 1990, but that was a flyby mission. It canceled a 2004 moon shot, LUNAR-A after repeated mechanical and fiscal problems.
SELINE was launched on Sept. 14 aboard one of the space program's mainstay H-2A rockets from Tanegashima, the remote island where the agency's space center is located.
To garner public interest, the probe carries sheets engraved with messages from 412,627 people around the world in its "Wish upon the Moon" campaign.
China's minister of defense and technology told China Central Television in July that everything was ready for a launch "by the end of the year" of the Chang'e 1 orbiter, which will use stereo cameras and X-ray spectrometers to map three-dimensional images of the lunar surface and study its dust.
China sent shock waves through the region in 2003 when it became the first Asian country to put its own astronauts into space. More ominously, China also blasted an old satellite into oblivion with a land-based anti-satellite missile, the first such test ever conducted by any nation, including the United States and Russia.
That test was widely criticized for its military implications. A similar rocket could be used to shoot military satellites out of space, and create a dangerous cloud of space debris.
India plans a manned space mission by 2015, using indigenous systems and technology. That will be preceded by an unmanned moon mission, Chandrayaan-1, in April 2008.
(This version CORRECTS corrects date of first Japanese satellite from 1972 to 1970)
These past few weeks have been busy with the changing market and all. Prices are falling, people are throwing properties on the market, and there are a lot of flippers out there over extended. The flipper part was the most surprising to me. I didn't see it until now. There are so many pretty places out there empty with massive price reductions. Fifty thousand dollar price reductions seem more normal than I ever remember in the past.
These past few weeks I realized that in the blogs about Real Estate there is an underlying theme of people talking about the Housing Market. What I know is that the Housing Market is different than Real Estate. The Housing Market is kind of a make work program for the good of the economy.
In the 1970s I was involved in the construction industry. My partner and I would finish or refinish properties for rent or sale. One builder in Lynnwood was having a terrible time with his crappy apartment buildings. They kept kind of falling apart. He used all of the cheapest stuff he could and then paid us to come in and fix it as it broke. He and I discussed it and he told me the building only needed to last fourteen years before he could tear them down and put real buildings there. The apartment buildings are still there today.
The theories of his statements are long and involved. These are theories however that are very true today. Housing does not need to last forever. What's of interest to me is that the Housing Market seems, or appears, to be a global phenomenon. From what I understand Shanghai has rebuilt huge sections of the city. I know that there is massive building in Greece and a friend of mine is going back and forth to Italy to check on his housing project there. In Peru there are thousands of condo projects being built as well as in Mexico that I've visited.
Isn't it strange that all of this mad building is going on all over the world at the same time? You economy buffs have probably heard of the jobs created by building, the financing, and ultimately the all mighty orders for durable goods such as as stoves and refrigerators.
How is it that smart people all over the world have chosen to create housing units? Whats even better to me is that now, today, after all of this mad building we have the new and improved "Green Built" homes to chose from. Let's forget for a minute the international oil crisis of the 1970s. Maybe all of this talk about Global Warming has finally sunk into the international culture enough to make Green Built an industry standard. To me, it's the built in obsolescence that has been the main stay of the disposable auto industry.
To actually make a point here, today; the Housing Market is a manipulated industry. It's dollars in dollars out. Ten years ago Asset Management was an educational trend that seems to be right on the money today. I talk with people over at Washington Mutual who have job security just managing acquired assets, OK, foreclosed or preforeclosed properties. Oh My God run for the hills, buy gold, be smart, save money, the stock market will surely be a safer haven for my dollars. Enough baiting, I promise.
The Housing market can collapse and every body in the industry has already made billions of dollars. Some corporations will go bankrupt in accordance with the new US bankruptcy laws and the assets will be managed to maximize future profits. OK, you don't buy, so what. You rent which is absolutely better. Housing prices are a function of time. Housing Units exist today paid for with present dollars. In two years, those same Housing Units will be paid for with future dollars and appear cheap by comparison.
Earlier I mention that Housing Units in the Housing Market are different than Real Estate. In today's market I don't see a lot of multi million dollar properties suffering from a lack of buyers. There is a difference between a McMansion and an Estate. Estates seem to be doing pretty well. My speculation is that all of the new millionaires created by the Housing Market of the past few years have cashed and are looking for a safe have for their dollars.
Yours some of the most rambling, nonsensical posts on this entire forum. Many countries are also expanding its nuclear arsenal. Is that because nukes are green or is it because they are designed like autos?
Further, relating luxury items with regular items (multi-million dollar estates to median homes) is clueless. Gee, I suppose they sell diamond encrusted laptops to the rich because they are a good investment too.
You'll have much better success with this debate if you attempt to write a little more clearly, and make concise arguments. Your writing is rambling and your points dive from topic to topic in a highly tangential manner.
My advice would be to limit your posts to one topic and to try and keep the posts short and on topic.
Honestly, I think you might be a little unbalanced. If 10 people tell you you're a little crazy, are you crazy, or are the other 10 people crazy? Something to think about...
Comments
You are working under the assumption that the economy will continue to be based on scarcity. Robots will remove the scarcity constraint. Economics describes how to use supply and demand curves to arrive at a single market prices. Each additional unit of supply decreases the price by a marginal amount. If you have no bounds on supply then the price drops to zero. Prices do not go up with robots. Instead supply of goods goes up and demand goes down. There is a lot of unused land on Earth. Robots can build habitation in unused places. Supply of housing skyrockets. Price of housing goes down. We are going to have to make some fundamental changes in how we structure our economy in order for our society to survive that change. Also, robots kill people. That reduces demand.
Raw materials will be the biggest bottleneck. With all of the production available the biggest problem will be what to do with old product models and other unwanted goods. Recycling and disassembly and will be a tremendously huge component of our future economy. China is already way ahead of us on that front. Many obsolete electronic components already are shipped to China where the precious metals and other components are harvested from the high tech refuse. This process currently produces a lot of toxic waste and is polluting China, but they have a lot of land to pollute. Robots will be able to do this more cheaply and cleanly. And even if it isn't cleaner, the robots won't care about the toxic environment. Robots have also been know to disassemble humans -- but I've already covered that fact.
Space is too big to explore. Humans simply do not live long enough. We could send robots out to explore for us, but it will be many, many generations before we get any results back. Still, it is probably a good long term strategy. At some point, resource and space usage on Earth will have turned it something resembling a big ball of swiss cheese. At that point we will want to find a few other pieces of dirt to call home. The robots can prepare those new homes for us centuries in advance.
Of course I've had this discussion before, and the stickler is what technology will develop the schematics to get the Venture Capital? Will it be the auto industry that is bringing us bigger, better, and safer gas combustion engines on wheels? Will it be the space age technology that first strapped a monkey to a rocket and blasted it into space, or the same technology that made the rocket ship look more like an airplane? How about that Segway guy? He can make a robot on his own dime to be told the city of San Francisco won't let the robots on public streets or sidewalks.
I know what you're thinking; you're thinking computer technology can make all kinds of very pretty charts and graphs. The CAD programs brought us mass produced housing plans to be rubber stamped by our municipalities. I remember when that plan was going to bring down the price of housing. What happened with that?
We can all make four hundred and fifty nine million dollars three hundred and fourteen thousand five hundred dollars if we can capitalize on the trends in diamonds, real estate and plastic conservative robots. The changes in our demographics will ensure that we will self limit and ultimately destroy ourselves but not before we're all insanely wealthy from real estate and/or running a cleaning firm. You can call me crazy but at least I know what I'm talking about and are not going to work for the man forever and instead will have legions of plastic robots working for me.
(wow, it's tiring trying to be this insane)
For the rest of the slobs, the permanent renters among you, the transistor crisis will result in a resurgence of roofing materials, which consequently will bring down the price of the basic food stock, so you will be able to feed yourselves, but under substandard (the new standard) shelter.
All of this means that without a new cooling technology, the conservation of bodily fluids will ultimately be pointless, since children or no, the amount of food will be limited by the number of keystrokes the oil drill foreman is able to type on his under siliconed computer.
Thank you.
Anyway, housing there is very cheap. The people need money and your retirement dollars would go a long way there.
This couple has sponsored six people to come here from Cambodia and the have all become citizens. Those people will sponsor as many as they can to come here and become citizens.
The question is why Seattle Washington? Why has Seattle Washington become a hub for international trade?
Plastics.
Gary Locke and his dad's tireless campaign to bring business people from China here would be my number one pick.
Really? It's not plastics? Man, I was so uninformed.
I pulled this in a one minute Google search about China buying United States debt. The writer mentions both India and China as major players in the world market. What is it that makes China and India such strong economic forces? Plastics?
My thought is that they are taking all of those low paying jobs from our economy and doing them for even less pay. Population is it's own economic force. I never hear about the tech sector of India making advances we never heard of. I never hear innovation as a reason why China can have trillions of dollars in reserves. All I ever hear is that they have a work force, huge factories that need oil, and absolute government control.
However, there are other sources of oil. Anybody that has ever been a teenager has experienced a phase in life where your face produces oil non-stop. This could help mitigate the oil problem, but since more and more people using condoms to preserve precious bodily fluids there are fewer and fewer children being born which means fewer teenagers.
Even robots need oil to generate the electricity they run on.
So what will be our future savior? The same as always, the sun.
Solar cells will provide all of the energy we'll need to power robots and plastics recycling centers. While they aren't making any more land, they are constantly making more sunlight. The dissapointing thing is that a solar world economy won't change the balance of power at all. Right now we are dependent on terrorist countries for their oil. And which regions get tons of sunlight (just ask any Iraq war vet)? That's right, the middle east.
We're here in the United States of America. We have food, water, and shelter, by the thousands of units to hear you all tell it, and the United States government is keeping it all safe and secure just for you.
You guys are the last hold outs of renters who are so smart you didn't buy a house. Now when prices are crashing you can step in and save the day.
I got news for ya, there's a much bigger picture. There are millions of people who want to come here and buy a house no matter what it costs. There are millions of people in the world that would just like to eat out of your garbage can.
These same people have multiple degrees from Universities that make your education look like high school. They study hard for just a chance at having more than one meal a day. You guys are talking about not having a house like it's a badge of courage. Come on show me some guts here. Show me where my theories are wrong.
Well, lets see. RE Prices in 95% of the country are falling. I have yet to see a story about a 3rd world denizen with a post-graduate degree bailing out an effed borrower. Maybe I have been reading the wrong blogs?
seriously david:
USCIS received enough H1B petitions to meet the general population H1B cap of 58,200 (congressional cap of 65,000 less 6,800 set aside for workers from Singapore and Chile by the Free Trade Act) for fiscal year 2006 on August 10,2005. Those cap numbers do not include the 20,000 exempt foreign workers with a U.S.-earned master's or higher degree.
78,000 foreign workers. do you think this is going to bail out the housing market? I work with what seems like most of them. I don't
The consultant ended his brokerage spiel by suggesting the gentleman from Viet Nam sell commercial properties to foriegn investors. You don't have to live here to invest here.
As I said this isn't the first time I've sat in on these meetings. The guy comes in looking to export medical equipment and ends up getting the America is a bargain speech. I didn't set it up, I don't solicit this type of client; it's a pain in the ass trying to explain the American way of doing business.
Think about it for two minutes. If the Euro is stronger and the Dollar is weaker where would you, as an investor prefer to put your money? As I understand it the conversion to Euros devasted huge segments of affordable housing across Europe. The housing market there, in my opinion, has become homogenized. Fortunes have been made by individuals who invested in Greece, around Athens when it was very reasonably priced. Today with the strong Euro being the trading currency those same places are worth the price of the dirt plus the revalued currency.
As an investor cashing in where would you prefer to put your money for future appreciation?
As far as the visas go, in my personal opinion, there are millions of illegal Chinese who have walked across the Canadian border unnoticed. The United States has such a fetish for keeping out the people from Mexico, South, or Central America that our Northern border is a joke. It just seems strange to me that people from other countries can come here with nothing, buy houses, cars, and start over. What's really strange is that in ten to fifteen years many of these people have amassed small fortunes and own property free and clear.
Now I'm more than willing to agree about the housing scheme of Henderson Nevada, or discuss how stupid people were to invest in Arizona when it has been a volitile market since I can remember. Seattle Washington seems a pretty safe bet by comparison. In the world market place it just seems to me that Seattle has been passed over for years in favor of San Francisco. I live in the Hispanic community and have heard all of the stories about how the great Mexican migration is pushing values of California. Seattle however is different.
You guys all talk about the Japanese housing bubble like the in country investing is what propped up that market up. I would suggest that in 1990 there was a flight of dollars away from Asia in preparation of China taking over Hong Kong. I've heard a lot of those dollars ended up in Vancouver B.C. I've also heard that Canada's liberal immigration policies attracted many people from India.
A very simple premise of the internet business model is that if every person from around the world gave a dollar to one business via the internet that company would be rich. The legend is that one guy asked for a dollar donation and made millions. By shear volume of there are more billionaires today than I couild have ever imagined as a kid starting out. I still think it's a numbers game and the numbers are headed this direction.
In fact, you're so sane, you're *in* sane. That's how sane you are...
Crazy like a fox.
A crazy fox.
Robots are an interesting concept to the human condition around the world. They can be the play things of the wealthy without crossing the line of slave trade. In France there was a push about a decade ago to allow immigration for those people who would do the jobs the French thought were beneath them. Today the new president of France is promising to resolve the problem of immigration.
You might also remember that France had a campaign a few years ago to promote the French, the true French, to make more babies. It's really not by mistake that DNA testing is mentioned in passing in the article above. There is actually an underground political movement to make France for the French people. Sound familiar?
I can't believe I'm reading this, much less RESPONDING to it, but it seems to me that people who want to eat out of my garbage can are going to have a hard time getting financing.
...for the plane ticket or for the downpayment.
Insane! Got no brain!
Here's what's insane, absolutely insane, is a bunch of college educated people talking about how bad the United States and Global economies are. The housing market pobably made as many millionaires as the dot com boom did.
Here's another news flash, people don't need to buy air plane tickets to come here. People walk across the border every day. People leave thier countries by raft, refugee camp, half track, or drive anything that will move. In some parts of the world other than in the United States of America people ride horses, camels, or mules. Isn't that funny?
You guys are so smart. How long would it take a ten year old boy in India to run here? To answer the absolutely insane idiot that would even speculate about this; How many people in a village or family would have to contribute to send a person here by plane? Better yet; How long would a person have to work at McDonalds to buy the next plane ticket for the next family member?
By boom, do you mean bubble?
So listen up everybody. My good friend David has reassured me that the dotcom crash was actually a boom, and therefore any market gains you've made on real estate are safe. And the people rejoice.
I dunno, why does Lyndon LaRouche keep coming to mind?
Japan Lunar Probe Reaches Orbit
By ERIC TALMADGE, Associated Press Writer
Thu Oct 4, 10:34 PM
TOKYO - Japan put its first satellite into orbit around the moon Friday, placing the country a step ahead of China and India in an increasingly heated space race in Asia.
The probe was set into lunar orbit after completing a complicated navigational maneuver late Thursday, space agency officials said. The probe will gradually move into orbit closer to the surface to the moon before conducting a yearlong observational mission.
"We believe this is a big step," said project manager Yoshisada Takizawa. "Everything is going well and we are confident."
Though four years off schedule, the mission comes at a crucial time for Japan.
China is expected to launch its own moon probe by the end of the year, and India is to follow with an unmanned lunar mission in 2008.
Japanese officials claim the $279 million Selenological and Engineering Explorer _ or SELENE _ is the largest lunar mission since the U.S. Apollo program in terms of overall scope and ambition, outpacing the former Soviet Union's Luna program and NASA's Clementine and Lunar Prospector projects.
The mission involves placing the main satellite _ called "Kaguya," after a legendary moon princess _ in a circular orbit at an altitude of about 60 miles and deploying two smaller satellites in elliptical orbits, according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA.
Researchers will use data gathered by the probes to study the moon's origin and evolution. Takizawa said it will begin its observation phase in mid- to late-December.
"The timing was very delicate," he said at a news conference in JAXA's Tokyo headquarters via a video link from the mission command center south of the capital. "It was important to the completion of the mission, and it was successful."
Japan launched its first satellite in 1970 but is now struggling to keep up with rival China.
Japan launched a moon probe in 1990, but that was a flyby mission. It canceled a 2004 moon shot, LUNAR-A after repeated mechanical and fiscal problems.
SELINE was launched on Sept. 14 aboard one of the space program's mainstay H-2A rockets from Tanegashima, the remote island where the agency's space center is located.
To garner public interest, the probe carries sheets engraved with messages from 412,627 people around the world in its "Wish upon the Moon" campaign.
China's minister of defense and technology told China Central Television in July that everything was ready for a launch "by the end of the year" of the Chang'e 1 orbiter, which will use stereo cameras and X-ray spectrometers to map three-dimensional images of the lunar surface and study its dust.
China sent shock waves through the region in 2003 when it became the first Asian country to put its own astronauts into space. More ominously, China also blasted an old satellite into oblivion with a land-based anti-satellite missile, the first such test ever conducted by any nation, including the United States and Russia.
That test was widely criticized for its military implications. A similar rocket could be used to shoot military satellites out of space, and create a dangerous cloud of space debris.
India plans a manned space mission by 2015, using indigenous systems and technology. That will be preceded by an unmanned moon mission, Chandrayaan-1, in April 2008.
(This version CORRECTS corrects date of first Japanese satellite from 1972 to 1970)
These past few weeks I realized that in the blogs about Real Estate there is an underlying theme of people talking about the Housing Market. What I know is that the Housing Market is different than Real Estate. The Housing Market is kind of a make work program for the good of the economy.
In the 1970s I was involved in the construction industry. My partner and I would finish or refinish properties for rent or sale. One builder in Lynnwood was having a terrible time with his crappy apartment buildings. They kept kind of falling apart. He used all of the cheapest stuff he could and then paid us to come in and fix it as it broke. He and I discussed it and he told me the building only needed to last fourteen years before he could tear them down and put real buildings there. The apartment buildings are still there today.
The theories of his statements are long and involved. These are theories however that are very true today. Housing does not need to last forever. What's of interest to me is that the Housing Market seems, or appears, to be a global phenomenon. From what I understand Shanghai has rebuilt huge sections of the city. I know that there is massive building in Greece and a friend of mine is going back and forth to Italy to check on his housing project there. In Peru there are thousands of condo projects being built as well as in Mexico that I've visited.
Isn't it strange that all of this mad building is going on all over the world at the same time? You economy buffs have probably heard of the jobs created by building, the financing, and ultimately the all mighty orders for durable goods such as as stoves and refrigerators.
How is it that smart people all over the world have chosen to create housing units? Whats even better to me is that now, today, after all of this mad building we have the new and improved "Green Built" homes to chose from. Let's forget for a minute the international oil crisis of the 1970s. Maybe all of this talk about Global Warming has finally sunk into the international culture enough to make Green Built an industry standard. To me, it's the built in obsolescence that has been the main stay of the disposable auto industry.
To actually make a point here, today; the Housing Market is a manipulated industry. It's dollars in dollars out. Ten years ago Asset Management was an educational trend that seems to be right on the money today. I talk with people over at Washington Mutual who have job security just managing acquired assets, OK, foreclosed or preforeclosed properties. Oh My God run for the hills, buy gold, be smart, save money, the stock market will surely be a safer haven for my dollars. Enough baiting, I promise.
The Housing market can collapse and every body in the industry has already made billions of dollars. Some corporations will go bankrupt in accordance with the new US bankruptcy laws and the assets will be managed to maximize future profits. OK, you don't buy, so what. You rent which is absolutely better. Housing prices are a function of time. Housing Units exist today paid for with present dollars. In two years, those same Housing Units will be paid for with future dollars and appear cheap by comparison.
Earlier I mention that Housing Units in the Housing Market are different than Real Estate. In today's market I don't see a lot of multi million dollar properties suffering from a lack of buyers. There is a difference between a McMansion and an Estate. Estates seem to be doing pretty well. My speculation is that all of the new millionaires created by the Housing Market of the past few years have cashed and are looking for a safe have for their dollars.
Yours some of the most rambling, nonsensical posts on this entire forum. Many countries are also expanding its nuclear arsenal. Is that because nukes are green or is it because they are designed like autos?
Further, relating luxury items with regular items (multi-million dollar estates to median homes) is clueless. Gee, I suppose they sell diamond encrusted laptops to the rich because they are a good investment too.
You'll have much better success with this debate if you attempt to write a little more clearly, and make concise arguments. Your writing is rambling and your points dive from topic to topic in a highly tangential manner.
My advice would be to limit your posts to one topic and to try and keep the posts short and on topic.
Honestly, I think you might be a little unbalanced. If 10 people tell you you're a little crazy, are you crazy, or are the other 10 people crazy? Something to think about...
DJO - whatever are you referring to?
This thread is like the junk drawer where you store tape, batteries, pens, candles, little screw drivers, etc.