BK>>>>  Industry is where productivity increases most easily. And
 BK>>>>  industry is leaving the country.

 BA>>> I get a honk out of your fixation on productivity.  AAMOF,
 BA>>> one can be efficient as h*ll and productive as h*ll and
 BA>>> neither accomplish nor make anything of value - or FTM
 BA>>> anything at all.  But one is very efficient at doing it.
 BA>>> IMO it's a pretty much meaningless measure.

 BK>>  It's a lot more meaningful than you may realize. Much of our
 BK>>  economy runs on people who do not actually produce anything.

 BA> *Everybody* associated with the Internet, for example.
 BA> Several to many thousand people performing what are
 BA> basically useless tasks that contribute nothing but
 BA> time-wasting entertainment.

 Nope. The internet is slowly replacing the printed news media,
 for example. I do not consider that a good thing, but it does
 seem to be a fact.

 Lots of trade does go on through the internet. I am looking at
 buying a memory simm for an old computer soon, through the web,
 nobody around here carries that particular one. Also some other
 hard to find parts.

 And I download manuals for equipment at work all the time.

 ...

 BA> There were private computer networks long before there was
 BA> the Internet. Most large companies had them.  Shucks, banks
 BA> even had remote ATMs before there was an Internet.  Not
 BA> including Fidonet, BTW, although I suppose that counts too.

 That is arguable. I worked in a central data room of a paper
 company back in 65, but that was not a true network. Fidonet was
 not a true computer network, in the sense that the internet is,
 as each hub dialed up individually each night to exchange msg
 packets.

 The arpanet was before the internet, but the internet began in
 the mid '70s, IIRC. How long ago the banks had remote ATMs I
 don't know, but those could be done through dedicated lines. A
 lot of things were done through dedicated lines.


BOB KLAHN bob.klahn{at}sev.org   http://home.toltbbs.com/bobklahn

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