You folks are way too positive about this.   As we have global weather
change a new stimulus will come into place and it will be led by pest
control.   We are experiencing the vanguard here in New York City where a
whole new industry is springing up to deal with bedbugs.   I call it the
Republican stimulus package.   It's akin to the guy who goes down the street
breaking windows and then give cards away about a special deal on replacing
windows.   

Here in NYCity bedbugs are epidemic.   The old system of chemicals has
broken down because of the other industry, allergies, that has made so many
adults incapable of tolerating pesticides.   You can forget the eagles.
These people are violently allergic to the environment and so the best
remedy for pests is hot air with a lot of steam. (and I'm not talking about
this list either, it won't kill bedbugs.:>)) 

You have a dog trained for $20,000 that is starved (only fed when it
discovers bedbugs, at the end of the day, no bedbugs means the dog returns
to the office where dead bedbugs are hidden and discovered and then the dog
gets one meal.   The dogs look like concentration camp survivors.) The dogs
inspects Abercrombie and Fitch, Nike, Citibank, etc.   The public
transportation is said to be covered with them including taxis, buses and
trains.  They are in the walls of buildings etc.   The cost of an
extermination can run up to $5,000 for a simple apartment with the entire
apartment being taken apart, put into plastic containers, steam heat treated
and then reassembled only to be re-infected and started over again.  

The possibilities here are limitless.   People removing their clothes at the
door, being sprayed with alcohol which kills the little buggers.   Its like
a voyeurs delight.   Far superior to the full body scans in the airport.
It feeds Islamophobia because they won't take off their clothes.  Orthodox
Jewish women as well. It is the perfect storm.   

I see it replacing all industries in productivity with the exception of the
financial industry that is really the big brother of the bedbug industry.
I spoke to one person from the provinces who spoke of the problem in houses.
It took two years and a lot of cold weather to solve the problem.  You can
imagine the problem in a big hi-rise apartment house.   Then there's China
with all of those people. Unlimited market with global weather change and
the decline of nicotine products that kills both people and bedbugs. 

Raise you both and is that all you got? 

REH

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Michael Gurstein
Sent: Friday, October 29, 2010 7:04 PM
To: 'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION'
Subject: Re: [Futurework] Both schools are wrong

Keith is of course wrong both in the specifics and in the general...

The largest and fastest growing consumer good (both elite and mass) is the
"experience industry" including packaged mass travel at one end and
individual thrill seeking adventure travel at the other (bungee jumping).

The market/demand for this is likely insatiable this side of impossibly
expensive transportation costs...

If nothing else China will drive this market both internationally and
internally.

The lovely thing about the "experience industry" as compared to any of the
other "iconic goods" is that the demand for it can never be satisfied--once
you've climbed the tallest 5 peaks there are always another 10 waiting in
the wings, more Disneylands to visit, the Grand Canyon then the predator
icons in Zurich and Manhattan and even the anti-bit tax palaces in Silicon
Valley... 

(there, I did it too and raised you one Ed ;-)

M

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of pete
Sent: Saturday, October 30, 2010 5:35 AM
To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION,EDUCATION
Subject: Re: [Futurework] Both schools are wrong


On Fri, 29 Oct 2010, Keith Hudson wrote:

> At 12:32 29/10/2010 +0200, Chris wrote:
> >Keith challenged:
> > > Find me a new consumer product that's highly desirable by the 
> > > rich, very expensive -- say, equivalent to what the car was in the 
> > > 1910s/20s -- but capable of repeated phases of mass production 
> > > until it reaches down to everybody in due course.
> >
> >How about space tourism?
> >Mark Shuttleworth paid 20m, now it's getting cheaper...
> 
> About as attractive for most as bungee-jumping I'd suggest (and that's 
> free!).
> 
> Keith

Where did you get that idea? It is both popular and lucrative. People 
line up for the opportunity, as they do for sky diving, etc. They do 
have one day a year at the operation on the gorge near Nanaimo where 
they offer free jumping as a promotion, but only if you agree to jump 
naked.

If space travel was a cheap as bungee jumping, the planet would be 
rapidly emptied (assuming destinations which such a condition would allow to
be constructed).

 -Pete


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