Between the Century from 1908 to 2008, the world underwent stupendous transformation. I like to compare a photo of then vs now for an example:
Time Magazine, New York to Paris 1908 auto race
I like to look at old photos to get the idea of change. In that last century since 1908 the world population grew from roughly 1 billion people (the former limit to agrarian society without cheap energy) to now about 7 billion.
The US went during that period to world economic and military leadership. China emerged from a long sort of middle ages period and from some significant colonial abuses from the Europeans as well as that nasty WW2 fight with the Japanese… and so we know lots has happened to the world.
I am only giving a glimpse of the pace of the changes. Not to mention the havoc caused by WW1 and WW2; the world still lives with the geopolitical alignments from the 1900s, not the least of which is the Map of the Middle East, crafted together in a patchwork of warring tribes of Arabs and others…Those Brits really created a Map of that area to work with! Whew! After they left.
It was Cheap energy and food and mass production, then
Cheap energy enabled mass production of goods, and cheap and abundant fertilizer and water enabled a ‘green revolution’ which enabled the world population to grow by 7 times…and is now stressing the planets resources.
But, putting aside these mammoth world changes in lifestyle and population, what are the major trends now in place which will gain in momentum during the next decade? And if we pick some investment areas wisely we might just make a nice bunch of money too.
In the meantime, as with any major historical change, the old order will gradually fade (probably as the baby boomers retire) and what I see is a new and already well underway new economic order, with vast new freedoms for individuals emerging. Another round of massive world technical innovation, coupled with some major strains as the world population hovers at a critical 7 times what it used to be around 1900. All that change in one mere century!
And, I am 49 years old, and I personally witnessed much of all this change! Fortunately I managed to escape the ravages of WW1 and WW2, but I still saw huge social changes across the West, with the very curious and stimulating rise of China into a futuristic behemoth with lots of promise…
One thing of huge noteworthiness is how the internet (I am an Oracle Systems engineer by training) vastly increased personal freedom and knowledge. It is said now that the number of inventions is now doubling almost every year presently (or maybe that’s every two years).
But, in case you haven’t forgotten all those passwords for your Amazon.com or other favorite internet sales vortex, and you still have some money in your bank account to buy yet more good ies, well it’s very clear that the online retail sales trend is only beginning to foster, and overall the internet related activities are changing the world at an ever faster pace, leaving the old non internet people reading yesterday’s old newspapers…and scratching their heads while the kids are running amok…but they have some surprising morality even so now and will save us all in the end, you will see. Very smart bunch I’ll tell you. They will figure out the Malthusian problem.
The Network is not new, it’s just far bigger now
You know, in principle, the internet has always been around. If we were to begin with the spoken word, then add writing, then printing presses and books, well you already had a robust world of knowledge gathering over the last 3 millennia. We are the beneficiaries…
If you compare the average person in the West, or perhaps now in areas of Asia, physically they are taller, smarter, faster, live longer. That is sort of a big problem for the retirement demographics from everybody from the US to Asia to the EU, but the point is, a new tremendously dynamic world civilization is already building out in front of our eyes!
So, even though I personally have been more or less an expert at the gradual winding down of our present technical limitations (population growth and everybody trying to live like an upper class/middle class US citizen, which is not feasible right now with our present resource utilization that produces one truck load of goods and another 30 – that’s right 30 truck loads of refuse for each one produced.
Our problems can be solved
Assuming that the resource abuses can be controlled within several decades, we might just solve our major environmental problems on the planet, save our water resources, and even level off the world population at something short of 8 billion people….not so hard if you consider that a large part of the world population is nearing retirement age… things can be done with our demographics to ease our population and concomitant war pressures over natural resources…
Dangers but also some stunning new investment prospects
But, we at Prudent Squirrel still see the dangers, but also many new potential investment horizons peeking through the clouds…we have already discussed several stocks, one SIRI which I just love and listen to all the time as do my friends…we bought that at about 1.00 several weeks ago and notified subscribers…
But that is a hint of the newer horizons I foresee, many internet related that are changing the way society lives and works now. We are moving away from the cheap energy (not that that is bad) and industrial age to a newer cleaner and more rich technology age, with vast benefits and free time for millions of people.
We are looking now and will continue looking for stocks (although I am still concerned about another stock crash this year) and will be adding to these as the markets permit…with a little patience.
But, in any case, we also use biblical prophecy (all you materialists can close your eyes) and find them happening right now in front of our eyes, with the Mid East and Israel and Jerusalem right in the middle of the show…we aren’t forgetting things like prophecy while watching for some new hot tech stock … we are on the ball, I assure you.
