Had this emailed to me, I hope it wakes up our nations. It's a bit of a read but worth it, I think.



Sent: Thu, January 6, 2011 7:17:01 AM
Subject: Changes Are A Coming: Ready or Not - Scary





This is scary but is something we all basically know, especially when
you have worked for a North American manufacturer.

WOW this email is American but we could learn from it. I think it's an
eye opener, so sad & VERY scary.

What will Christmas be like in 2025? It will be unauthorized by Moslems
and Federal Judges.

It's time to become concerned!

There is nothing political about this email. It simply points out very
probable changes that are in our future.

CHANGES ARE COMING ----

Whether these changes are good or bad depends in part on how we adapt to
them. But, ready or not, here they come

#1. The Post Office. Get ready to imagine a world without the post
office. They are so deeply in financial trouble that there is probably
no way to sustain it long term. Email, Fed Ex, and UPS have just about
wiped out the minimum revenue needed to keep the post office alive. Most
of your mail every day is junk mail and bills.

#2. The Check. Britain is already laying the groundwork to do away
with checks by 2018. It costs the financial system billions of dollars a
year to process checks. Plastic cards and online transactions will lead
to the eventual demise of the check. This plays right into the death of
the post office If you never paid your bills by mail and never received
them by mail the post office would absolutely go out of business.

#3. The Newspaper. The younger generation simply doesn't read the
newspaper. They certainly don't subscribe to a daily delivered print
edition. That may go the way of the milkman and the laundry man. As for
reading the paper online, get ready to pay for it. The rise in mobile
Internet devices and e-readers has caused all the newspaper and magazine
publishers to form an alliance. They have met with Apple, Amazon, and
the major cell phone companies to develop a model for paid subscription
services.

#4. The Book. You say you will never give up the physical book that you
hold in your hand and turn the literal pages. I said the same thing
about downloading music from iTunes. I wanted my hard copy CD. But I
quickly changed my mind when I discovered that I could get albums for
half the price without ever leaving home to get the latest music. The
same thing will happen with books. You can browse a bookstore online and
even read a preview chapter before you buy. And the price is less than
half that of a real book. And think of the convenience! Once you start
flicking your fingers on the screen instead of the book, you find that
you are lost in the story, can't wait to see what happens next, and you
forget that you're holding a gadget instead of a book.

#5. The Land Line Telephone. Unless you have a large family and make a
lot of local calls, you don't need it anymore. Most people keep it
simply because they've always had it. But you are paying double charges
for that extra service. All the cell phone companies will let you call
customers using the same cell provider for no charge against your
minutes.

#6. Music. This is one of the saddest parts of the change story. The
music industry is dying a slow death. Not just because of illegal
downloading. It's the lack of innovative new music being given a chance
to get to the people who would like to hear it. Greed and corruption is
the problem. The record labels and the radio conglomerates are simply
self-destructing. Over 40% of the music purchased today is catalog
items," meaning traditional music that the public is familiar with.
Older established artists. This is also true on the live concert
circuit. To explore this fascinating and disturbing topic further, check
out the book, "Appetite for Self-Destruction" by Steve Knopper, and the
video documentary, "Before the Music Dies."

#7. Television. Revenues to the networks are down dramatically. Not
just because of the economy. People are watching TV and movies streamed
from their computers. And they're playing games and doing lots of other
things that take up the time that used to be spent watching TV. Prime
time shows have degenerated down to lower than the lowest common
denominator. Cable rates are skyrocketing and commercials run about
every 4 minutes and 30 seconds. I say good riddance to most of it. It's
time for the cable companies to be put out of our misery. Let the people
choose what they want to watch online and through Netflix.

#8. The "Things" That You Own. Many of the very possessions that we
used to own are still in our lives, but we may not actually own them in
the future. They may simply reside in "the cloud." Today your computer
has a hard drive and you store your pictures, music, movies, and
documents. Your software is on a CD or DVD, and you can always
re-install it if need be. But all of that is changing.. Apple,
Microsoft, and Google are all finishing up their latest "cloud
services." That means that when you turn on a computer, the Internet
will be built into the operating system. So, Windows, Google, and the
Mac OS will be tied straight into the Internet. If you click an icon, it
will open something in the Internet cloud. If you save something, it
will be saved to the cloud. And you may pay a monthly subscription fee
to the cloud provider.
In this virtual world, you can access your music or your books, or your
whatever from any laptop or handheld device. That's the good news but,
will you actually own any of this "stuff" or will it all be able to
disappear at any moment in a big "Poof?" Will most of the things in our
lives be disposable and whimsical? It makes you want to run to the
closet and pull out that photo album, grab a book from the shelf, or
open up a CD case and pull out the insert.

#9. Privacy. If there ever was a concept that we can look back on
nostalgically, it would be privacy. That's gone. It's been gone for a
long time anyway. There are cameras on the street, in most of the
buildings, and even built into your computer and cell phone. But you can
be sure that 24/7, "They" know who you are and where you are, right down
to the GPS coordinates, and the Google Street View. If you buy
something, your habit is put into a zillion profiles, and your ads will
change to reflect those habits. And "They" will try to get you to buy
something else. Again and again.

19 Facts About The De industrialization Of America That Will Blow Your
Mind.

The United States is rapidly becoming the very first "post-industrial"
nation on the globe. All great economic empires eventually become fat
and lazy and squander the great wealth that their forefathers have left
them, but the pace at which America is accomplishing this is absolutely
amazing. It was America that was at the forefront of the industrial
revolution. It was America that showed the world how to mass produce
everything from automobiles to televisions to airplanes. It was the
great American manufacturing base that crushed Germany and Japan in
World War II. But now we are witnessing the de industrialization of
America. Tens of thousands of factories have left the United States in
the past decade alone Millions upon millions of manufacturing jobs have
been lost in the same time period. The United States has become a
nation that consumes everything in sight and yet produces increasingly
little. Do you know what our biggest export is today? Waste paper.
Yes, trash is the number one thing that we ship out to the rest of the
world as we voraciously blow our money on whatever the rest of the world
wants to sell to us. The United States has become bloated and spoiled
and our economy is now just a shadow of what it once was. Once upon a
time America could literally out produce the rest of the world combined.
Today that is no longer true, but Americans sure do consume more than
anyone else in the world. If the de industrialization of America
continues at this current pace, what possible kind of a future are we
going to be leaving to our children?

Any great nation throughout history has been great at making things. So
if the United States continues to allow its manufacturing base to erode
at a staggering pace how in the world can the U.S. continue to consider
itself to be a great nation? We have created the biggest debt bubble
in the history of the world in an effort to maintain a very high
standard of living, but the current state of affairs is not anywhere
close to sustainable. Every single month America goes into more debt and
every single month America gets poorer.

So what happens when the debt bubble pops?

The de industrialization of the United States should be a top concern
for every man, woman and child in the country. But sadly, most
Americans do not have any idea what is going on around them. For people
like that, take this article and print it out and hand it to them
Perhaps what they will read below will shock them badly enough to
awaken them from their slumber. The following are 19 facts about the de
industrialization of America that will blow your mind....

#1 The United States has lost approximately 42,400 factories since 2001.
About 75 percent of those factories employed over 500 people when they
were still in operation.

#2 Dell Inc., one of America ’s largest manufacturers of computers,
has announced plans to dramatically expand its operations in China with
an investment of over $100 billion over the next decade.

#3 Dell has announced that it will be closing its last large U.S.
manufacturing facility in Winston-Salem , North Carolina in November.
Approximately 900 jobs will be lost.

#4 In 2008, 1.2 billion cell phones were sold worldwide. So how many of
them were manufactured inside the United States? Zero.

#5 According to a new study conducted by the Economic Policy Institute,
if the U.S. trade deficit with China continues to increase at its
current rate, the U.S. economy will lose over half a million jobs this
year alone.

#6 As of the end of July, the U.S. trade deficit with China had risen 18
percent compared to the same time period a year ago.

#7 The United States has lost a total of about 5.5 million manufacturing
jobs since October 2000.

#8 According to Tax Notes, between 1999 and 2008 employment at the
foreign affiliates of U.S. parent companies increased an astounding 30
percent to 10.1 million. During that exact same time period, U.S.
employment at American multinational corporations declined 8 percent to
21.1 million.

#9 In 1959, manufacturing represented 28 percent of U.S. economic
output. In 2008, it represented 11.5 percent.

#10 Ford Motor Company recently announced the closure of a factory that
produces the Ford Ranger in St. Paul, Minnesota. Approximately 750 good
paying middle class jobs are going to be lost because making Ford
Rangers in Minnesota does not fit in with Ford's new "global"
manufacturing strategy.

#11 As of the end of 2009, less than 12 million Americans worked in
manufacturing. The last time less than 12 million Americans were
employed in manufacturing was in 1941.

#12 In the United States today, consumption accounts for 70 percent of
GDP Of this 70 percent, over half is spent on services.

#13 The United States has lost a whopping 32 percent of its
manufacturing jobs since the year 2000.

#14 In 2001, the United States ranked fourth in the world in per
capita broadband Internet use. Today it ranks 15th.

#15 Manufacturing employment in the U.S. computer industry is actually
lower in 2010 than it was in 1975.

#16 Printed circuit boards are used in tens of thousands of different
products. Asia now produces 84 percent of them worldwide.

#17 The United States spend approximately $3.90 on Chinese goods for
every $1 that the Chinese spend on goods from the United States.

#18 One prominent economist is projecting that the Chinese economy will
be three times larger than the U.S. economy by the year 2040.

#19 The U.S. Census Bureau says that 43.6 million Americans are now
living in poverty and according to them that is the highest number of
poor Americans in the 51 years that records have been kept.

So how many tens of thousands more factories do we need to lose before
we do something about it?
How many millions more Americans are going to become unemployed before
we all admit that we have a very, very serious problem on our hands?

How many more trillions of dollars are going to leave the country before
we realize that we are losing wealth at a pace that is killing our
economy?

How many once great manufacturing cities are going to become rotting war
zones like Detroit before we understand that we are committing national
economic suicide? By the Democrats' benefits; and the Republicans
Free-Trade. Best start learning Chinese!

The de industrialization of America is a national crisis. It needs to
be treated like one.

AND THEN ROME FELL! And Nero fiddled, and America consumed but did not
produce but few goods. It was another dry year, the 80th since 1930.

 

Pretty hard to read something like this and not respond. Although the circumstances are bigger than any of us, we each need to be personally responsible to do the right things and impact folks and circumstances in a posistive way when and where ever we can.

I for one am glad to believe in One who is bigger than myself and knows how the story ends.

 

Yeah, well in the 1950's, this was supposed to be the 1990's. http://bluehaired.com/corner/wp-cont..._future_01.jpg
People predicting the future are wrong. Always.


I don't mean any offense, but if you actually believe any of that garbage, you are fool enough to deserve such a bleak and depressing future.
Nobody knows the future, and if that list contained our future, nobody would want to live anymore.

I'm tired of these "hell-world" future predictions people keep pushing on the world......It's pathetic.

 

I agree with you about the de-industrialization of America. One answer in to buy American. It's hard to do. (Easy to say, while I peck away on a keyboard and computer that was manufactured mostly overseas.) Some of the other laments do sound a little like what one might have heard at the passing of the telegraph, steam locomotive, or transistor radio. Some things just change. What are all of us on this forum going to sound like in twenty five years, when all new cars will probably be electric?

 

I have to agree with you on this. You really need to stike a balance in these things. Of course things are going to change but it is difficult at best to predict how or how much. I think that might be a good thing.

 

There is a problem; if there wasn't we wouldn't have just gone through an economic meltdown. The real problem lies in identifying the cause or causes of that meltdown.
I believe that there is an even larger problem in both Canada and the U.S. of A. We have somehow lost our pride- just doing a good job doesn't seem to cut it anymore. Everything is measured in how much we consume and the only way to win that game is to buy cheap stuff from China. That, however, is at best a short term strategy.
For a very interesting read from someone who is also concerned with this problem,check out Matthew B. Crawford's Shop Class As Soulcraft. It's a very interesting read that promotes the idea of returning to the trades instead of buying throw-away items. Fix it, or hire someone who can....sort of like driving old trucks!
Oh well, just my two cents worth.

 

This is what we get in America when we vote for Politicians instead of Leaders - That being said I don't know where to find leaders, I can however find plenty of Politicians for sale.

 

My employer says we need to continue to be competitive in the market, by way of continued cost cutting, working harder to prevent more hiring, and meet the near impossible deadlines put on us to get our product to the customer on time. If we don't we lose to China. No, not Chinese companies in direct competition. They don't make what we make. But to satisfy the corporate CEO who has to answer to the shareholders to make sure their retirement portfolios stay in the green. If we don't, they move our company to China, where their cheaper labor would make the overall running cost better. Now this could be a scare tactic to keep us working harder, but it's hard to play Russian Roulette with the CEO, especially when it comes to your livelihood, (career, family, etc...). And that's just us.....multiply that by all the companies who are already in direct competition with China, Taiwan, India, or wherever, and see where we are headed.

I'm not calling doomsday, but somehow, we need to reverse course.

 

My honest opinion?

China is the new U.S.A.

They are doing exactly what we were doing 100 years ago(which is what/when we were established as an official economical superpower and world leader). They are making everything that the world needs, including us. They are loaning extra funds, and their gaining technological and military power(through that technology).


I have no bad feelings towards the Chinese state. Why?

Because they are the new U.S.A. Everything they are doing today is what we did to become who we are.


The U.S. is beyond it's glory days, and we have officially handed off the torch to other countries, mainly Asia in general.

And I'm fine with that, it's about time someone else got an honest piece of the "world-ruling" pie that we have hoarded for the last century.


I don't mean to be anti-American, I just think it is natural that we--as a nation and an economy--are falling, while others are rising in(and to take) our place.

It's just the way it is.






And to add to that, a good reason why we've let other countries steal the ball back is simply because we are lazy, fat, and ignorant(and stupid) Americans. We are all jaded beyond belief. Our forefathers already worked their ***** off to get the great place in history we have, and so our following generations have let our guard down and now feel like we're too rich and important to have to slave over our labor.

We built our huge and powerful economical castle. And now we are too jaded to maintain it.

 

As Yogi Berra said: “It’s really hard to make predictions, especially about the future.”

Comparing the means by which China is rising to the way the US rose in the last century is completely wrong, in too many ways to even begin to address.

 

I'm not the most educated person on Earth by far, so I have no problem with being wrong.

I still feel that they are and eventually will replace us as the economical leader.

 

Tho it`s hard to do with our currant mind set, stop buying Chinese made products and spend afew cents per item more to buy quality lasting locally made products.

 

I remember the oil imbargo back in the 70's,...prime rate was 21% and I was a realestate sales man. Talk about doom and gloom. My office was right down the street from a Chrysler plant. There were big layoffs at the plant and the workers were not happy and showed it from time to time. When the plant shifts changed at around 3pm there was a lot of traffic out front of my office . If you needed to go any place at that time you were at the mercy of a nice plant worker to let you out of our parking lot. If you drove a Foreign car you pretty much sat in our parking lot until the shift change was over and normal traffic patterns returned. I drove a Toyota back then and I will never forget the faces of these Chrysler guys. They were not mean,...just upset. I will never forget that , I have bought USA cars ever since. Although its harder to do now days I try to buy American, or patonize small local companies instead of the Giant stores. I dont know what eles to do. I think that is a big reason why I love my truck so much. Reminds me of a simple, uncomplicated time.

 

Try buying U.S made tie rod ends for your truck. I did but gave up after ordering 3 different sets. Even the most expensive ones from NAPA, which I was told were made by a U.S. manufacturer, turned out not to be. The left threaded one was "assembled" in U.S.A. and the right threaded one was made in Taiwan.

 

I hear you but I think we brought this on ourselves by saving afew dollars buying the slightly cheaper items. As prices went up then it was ''why not go with the cheaper brand'' not realising what we were doing to our own economy.