Twitter [digital economy] vs the rest of the economy

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Typhoon
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Twitter [digital economy] vs the rest of the economy

Post by Typhoon »

Kotkin | Twitter And The Real Economy Of Jobs
With Twitter’s high-profile IPO, the media and much of the pundit class are revisiting one of their favorite themes: the superiority of the brash, young urban tech elite, who don’t need to produce much in the way of profits to be showered with investor cash. Libertarians will celebrate the triumph of fast-paced greed and dismiss concerns over equity; progressives may dislike the easy money but will be comforted when much of it ends up supporting their candidates and causes.

Lost amid this discussion is any sense of reality about the economy for the rest of us. To be sure, in large part due to the Fed, the Bay Area and Manhattan are awash in money. But these places are barely typical of their regions, much less the nation, and are not attuned to creating a prosperity that will benefit more than a slight percentage of our population.

The focus on digital uber alles is endorsed by a new school of American economics that essentially cedes the future to information-based industries and considers tangible activities like fossil fuel production, manufacturing and construction passé. In the mind of its devotees, such as UC Berkeley’s Enrico Moretti, author of The New Georgaphy of Jobs, information industries, clustered in ultra-expensive, overwhelmingly white (and Asian) enclaves, are the lodestones of our economic future.
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Re: Twitter [digital economy] vs the rest of the economy

Post by noddy »

retail is the last bastion for the bulk of the folks that arent really equipped for the constant education tech economies and the internet is eating into that fast.

take away the massive amount of tax payer funded government jobs that arent sustainable and its difficult to see much beyond the current malaise being worse for a while yet before it gets better.
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Re: Twitter [digital economy] vs the rest of the economy

Post by Mr. Perfect »

So 1990's...
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Re: Twitter [digital economy] vs the rest of the economy

Post by Juggernaut Nihilism »

Thank God I make my money helping the US government kill people.
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Re: Twitter [digital economy] vs the rest of the economy

Post by Azrael »

Juggernaut Nihilism wrote:Thank God I make my money helping the US government kill people.
Considering how much money it costs per person killed, it is quite a good revenue stream.

In technology, the goal is to have the customer subscribe: move from a one-time payment for software or hardware or whatever to an ongoing repeated payment for a service. It sounds like, with the industry you're a part of, that's what you have. Congratulations. It sounds like the big guys have been good to you.

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Re: Twitter [digital economy] vs the rest of the economy

Post by Doc »

Typhoon wrote:Kotkin | Twitter And The Real Economy Of Jobs
With Twitter’s high-profile IPO, the media and much of the pundit class are revisiting one of their favorite themes: the superiority of the brash, young urban tech elite, who don’t need to produce much in the way of profits to be showered with investor cash. Libertarians will celebrate the triumph of fast-paced greed and dismiss concerns over equity; progressives may dislike the easy money but will be comforted when much of it ends up supporting their candidates and causes.

Lost amid this discussion is any sense of reality about the economy for the rest of us. To be sure, in large part due to the Fed, the Bay Area and Manhattan are awash in money. But these places are barely typical of their regions, much less the nation, and are not attuned to creating a prosperity that will benefit more than a slight percentage of our population.

The focus on digital uber alles is endorsed by a new school of American economics that essentially cedes the future to information-based industries and considers tangible activities like fossil fuel production, manufacturing and construction passé. In the mind of its devotees, such as UC Berkeley’s Enrico Moretti, author of The New Georgaphy of Jobs, information industries, clustered in ultra-expensive, overwhelmingly white (and Asian) enclaves, are the lodestones of our economic future.

Indeed. Where have all the jobs gone? You have to wonder big information technology companies making money off personal information of people that more and more have no money and no jobs supported by a government going out of control gathering personal information on the very same people giving a big wink to the big information companies. "And then they came after the IT workers at the big information companies"
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Re: Twitter [digital economy] vs the rest of the economy

Post by Miss_Faucie_Fishtits »

Ugly überthreat or zombie apocalypse? Can't really decide from this:
But when you’re the victim, when all of your data has been encrypted and you don’t have a suitable backup, you’re faced with two choices: pay up or have those files frozen forever. That’s why so many people are paying and why security experts fear more of this nasty malware is on the way.
http://www.today.com/money/cryptolocker ... 2D11586019
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Re: Twitter [digital economy] vs the rest of the economy

Post by Enki »

Twitter is a great app, but highly overvalued.

Looks like it's time to party like it's 1998. ;)

A lot of software that's coming out these days that really has a good profit model is enterprise level stuff where people have like 700 customers but a license is $ 20k or more. Business Intelligence is headed for a bubble, but I don't think it's going to burst for quite a while.

Meanwhile Twitter certainly makes market research a lot easier.
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Re: Twitter [digital economy] vs the rest of the economy

Post by noddy »

the main thing I find interesting about twitter and facebook is the game on them maintaining their place in the social media world.

so far the history of the net has been these things rising and falling as new ones become fashionable but the government and commercial integration into these 2 makes me wonder if they aren't going to have more staying power.

already their are community services in my area which I can only access from a facebook account, its annoyingly compulsory.
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Re: Twitter [digital economy] vs the rest of the economy

Post by Enki »

I think FaceBook is gone in ten years.

As for fundamentals of the economy, paying the low wage workers more is the only thing that will rebound the economy.

These apps are economic icing not economic cake. But an economy that recognized that if the working class made more money there would be more to rake up with data it would boom.
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Re: Twitter [digital economy] vs the rest of the economy

Post by noddy »

feh, its all relative and the bottom stays the bottom and everything adjusts to suit.

they do get extra money for the first few weeks which is nice but after that every damn thing has adjusted back up to account for the new normal.
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Re: Twitter [digital economy] vs the rest of the economy

Post by Enki »

noddy wrote:feh, its all relative and the bottom stays the bottom and everything adjusts to suit.
Not really, because it's about flow. If the bottom has more money to spend at the bottom, everything would do better.

Like with everything in nature, feed the roots and the leaves will reach for the Sun.
they do get extra money for the first few weeks which is nice but after that every damn thing has adjusted back up to account for the new normal.
That's why you tie the minimum wage to inflation.
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Re: Twitter [digital economy] vs the rest of the economy

Post by Nonc Hilaire »

Enki wrote:
noddy wrote:feh, its all relative and the bottom stays the bottom and everything adjusts to suit.
Not really, because it's about flow. If the bottom has more money to spend at the bottom, everything would do better.

Like with everything in nature, feed the roots and the leaves will reach for the Sun.
they do get extra money for the first few weeks which is nice but after that every damn thing has adjusted back up to account for the new normal.
That's why you tie the minimum wage to inflation.
But CPI is not related to inflation or minimum wage.
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noddy
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Re: Twitter [digital economy] vs the rest of the economy

Post by noddy »

Enki wrote:
noddy wrote:feh, its all relative and the bottom stays the bottom and everything adjusts to suit.
Not really, because it's about flow. If the bottom has more money to spend at the bottom, everything would do better.
yes really, because its all about public and private both setting their prices to suit and every single thing in a poor persons life is constantly monitored and adjusted accordingly.

every single means tested government service, every grocery at the local store, every aspect of their housing and transport is all exactly at the highest cost it can be, thats how our society works, thats hows its structured, thats how its desgined to work.

in the retail world the costs go up more immediately because the staff are getting a payrise, so thats a given.

in the public world all the various service providers which debate how much people pay for a service always discuss it in terms of percentage of income and purchasing power so they also increase prices when you get more purchasing power and this happens in a delayed fashion so they get a brief period of enjoying the extra dollars.
Enki wrote: Like with everything in nature, feed the roots and the leaves will reach for the Sun.
wrong analogy, like everything in nature the biggest roots suck up the most fertiliser and water and the little roots around the edge battle over the rest so its largely meaningless to say those little bits on the edge are now worth 1 trillion dollars instead of 100 dollars, its still the same scraps.
Enki wrote:
they do get extra money for the first few weeks which is nice but after that every damn thing has adjusted back up to account for the new normal.
That's why you tie the minimum wage to inflation.
thats constantly escalating inflation, even our most left wing governments dont believe in that.

i know that some think its obvious that increased minimum wage means increased purchasing power but it only makes sense if every single aspect of society is likewise strictly price controlled and thusly all the costs remain fixed, a pure communist environment.

this isnt how it works, its not even how our public services work, costs are in flux all the time, the staff at the local government are as twitchy to get extra money as the corporate pig.

if want life better for the poor you get furthur attacking how much things cost imho and that involves getting furiously mad at the f*ckers getting bailed and avoiding the proper market correction that should be letting all this stuff cost less.

for the private world its banks,housing and insurance.. the fire economy.. the thing being protected from reality by the reserve bank stimulus.. rent seeking parasites trying to avoid the fact we dont have endless growth and endless boomtimes and eating the poor and lower middle class's future to maintain their entitled today.

for the public world its staff wages paid for by government debt.

let it all scale down, let the costs reflect reality, i dont believe in endless boomtimes and endless growth, i think its a wiggly line and they are pretending the downwards wiggle isnt happening by using debt and money printing.

let those fat roots get skinnier and allow more space for the smaller roots on the outside to grab some space =]
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Re: Twitter [digital economy] vs the rest of the economy

Post by Enki »

Valid points about Purchasing Power.

However, a mentality of having the top look after the bottom can help the entire world. Of course our mentality right now is to strip mine the entire planet and turn every wetland into a mini-mall.

Labor's purchasing power and its cost of supply isn't the only factor that leads to inflation.
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Re: Twitter [digital economy] vs the rest of the economy

Post by noddy »

Enki wrote:Valid points about Purchasing Power.

However, a mentality of having the top look after the bottom can help the entire world. Of course our mentality right now is to strip mine the entire planet and turn every wetland into a mini-mall.
for sure but this isnt about minimum wage and nasty right wing exploiters, its every bit as much about public services and government staff because this pool of money which isnt making it out to the poor has people (a) not paying into it and (b) taking as much as they can out of it before it makes it anywhere near the poor.

my number one frustration with the modern west - fact is that the poor are screwed by the system in all directions and the west is a crap place to be poor no matter who is in charge.

Enki wrote:Labor's purchasing power and its cost of supply isn't the only factor that leads to inflation.
never said it was, it is however a sad reality when it comes to trying to improve the lives of the working poor and lower middle, the lack of resources they get is a sympton of the real attitude of both left and right wing westerners and the underyling power games and distribution networks, the dollar amounts you attach to the scraps that make it out to them are missing the point, big time.
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