Wednesday, May 30, 2012

The Incredible Shrinking World

I just wrapped up a short research project. My collaborators were a Thai who lives in Switzerland and a Chinese who lives in Virginia. I'm an ol' country boy who grew up and lives in Central Texas. The actual research was conducted by some colleagues in Spain. We worked together using free technology for phone and video conferences (Skype), along with standard data storage, statistical analysis, file transfer, and word processing packages, and, of course, the Internet. All of this marvelous technology was available at little or no cost, even for a modest, small-scale project like ours.

After our final conference call I got to thinking about the advances I've seen in just the last few decades. When I was a kid we lived out in the country in West Texas. For telephone calls we had a rotary phone - on a party line. Television was in black-and-white, with only three channels (helped along by rabbit ears and tin foil). Music came in two forms: AM radio, or 45's.


Cell phones? Computers (much less home computers or laptops)? Hell, we didn't even have air conditioning in the house or an automatic transmission in the car. The car windows were rolled down by using a crank and muscles, not by pressing a button.


I could go on, but you get the idea. And what has made all this progress possible?

The Free Market.

So why is it under attack by so many people?

Maybe because they lack the historical perspective to appreciate it...

4 comments:

Old NFO said...

Or because they're NOT getting their cut...

Toejam said...

I grew up in the 1950's and can relate to the products in this post.

I can appreciate the progress that has been made when I think of my first recording device. A Sony reel to reel tape recorder the size of a large suitcase and now I have an iPod with 1,000 times the power and 1.000 times smaller.

Progressives don't like the "free market" because, as they perceive it, in a free market society the creme rises to the top and that creates a "caste system". They, in their naive, Socialist way see this as evil. What they don't realize is that ALL members of society benefit from free enterprize and even today's poor are vastly better off than their grandparents.

Socialism and anti-free market ideology will only create welfare dependence and a dictatorship form of government.

Pascvaks said...

Actually, I think it's more of a religious thing. There's no credible logic to it but they "know" that if only they get their way everything will be hunky-dorry. Kind'a like all the other 'religions' who think their way is the only way. Beware of religious fanatics, all of them, whether they believe in God or not.

Ohhh yes, and if a nice big bucket of cold water doesn't turn them away... ahhhhhhhh... we'll maybe you need to get your friends to help you throw a few million more buckets (with or without water;-) at them.

I hate religions, they waste so much time and energy, and blood and water, but that's the way it is, and it ain't gonna' change anytime soon.

CenTexTim said...

I think Toejam and Pascvaks are onto something. The 'true-believer' liberals know that their way is better, in spite of a couple of centuries of evidence to the contrary.