Re: New list member

J. Michael New (MICHAEL.NEW@NRC.CA)
Mon, 11 Mar 1996 12:19:07 -0500

Terry D. Martin reveals:
>
> Ladies and Gentlemen,
>
> Have recently subscribed to your list and am not yet familiar with
your
> threads. Would like to participate or initiate a thread pertaining to future
> economic structures. The economic trends that we see today will define how
> you will live 25 years from now. It is my perception that we are leaving an
> economy based on materialism and entering one to be based on 'virtual
> materialism'. The internet or its successors will most certainly play a
> major role in this restructuring. Would like to hear from anyone, but am
> particularly interested in opinions from folks under age 35. My own age
> considerably exceeds that number, but don't hold that against me. Why, some
> of my best friends used to be young! Thanks for your ear and your future
> inputs. They call me "TD". It's not pretty, but there it is.
>

I don't know what "based on" means wrt "based on materialism", but I
assume it is referring to the majority of the economy. There's no doubt
that we're moving that way (in rich countries), but there will always
be a large 'material economy'. We have to eat. We have to live in
the real world. Even if we all locked ourselves up in our homes and
telecommmuted, and derived all of our pleasure from inside (what a
yukky thought!) we would still have to somehow grow food, collect it,
distribute it, maintain our "hardware" (i.e. our homes, hardware for
working, our health, etc.). And since I think we'll always want to
get out, travel, etc, we still will need transportation, which is
a huge industry if you add it all up, and protection, and recreation,
and so on.

Do people forget that even though it is becoming an "information
economy," we live in the real world where things must be grown and
built? Or do they (the media especially) just ignore the material
industries because they've always been there?

Mike and @ <---- my ear

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J. Michael New Michael.New@NRC.Ca
Integrated Manufacturing Technologies Institute (613)991-4371
National Research Council of Canada home: (613)230-7783
"Star Trek transporter: the ultimate Cut and Paste"
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