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To: Gottfried who wrote (1823)	6/13/1999 7:09:00 PM
From: Mark Oliver	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2025

<Mark, I've had a nagging question for some time: does the internet create new jobs/sales or does it just take them away from conventional sales channels? Asked another way: does the net cause new spending, and if so, where does this money come from? Savings?> Yes, does the net rob Peter to pay Paul? I can say that I have changed my life because of the net. I watch less TV and I naturally have shifted my income to active investing. I have educated myself about investing, and the status of technology because it was my interest and the net provided a timely source of instruction. Certainly, Internet investing has created jobs at Schwab, E*trade, etc. Look at all the companies we use. ISP's, you could say all their employees are directly benefiting from our new interests. Many people buying computers to go online, and you can go a long way looking for equipment and software vendors who've grown huge employee bases to make the stuff to support the Internet. Educational sources are growing and getting better. Perhaps people buy more books, and generally read more. I live in a remote area and it is truly transforming to have all the resource available because of the net. And yes, we are seeing many changes of efficiency where things we buy cost less and therefore we can buy more. Entertainment will reshape as we go forward. Advertising on the net has become big business. The future will hold interactive programming that is more based on what we want to see than what the media chooses to feed us. People will come home and choose to watch things that relate to their lives. More programming will be educational in it's very nature of timely interaction with our interests. On the other hand, I have a friend here who works at a little ISP run by 3 people. He looks at the places people go on the web out of curiosity and he believes that nearly half the people are looking for porn. That creates an interesting variation on one of the oldest professions. It's not exactly where I would like people to channel there interests and this example is probably a good one of how the net won't actually change our society for the better as quickly as we'd like to think. Anyway, I think the Internet brings positive growth to the economy and the deflation we see is an evolution that will be an unstoppable reality. An interesting condition will be how the US may continue to bring this information gap to their advantage against cultures who are slower to adopt this change. Good use of the Internet is a strategic development that every country will need to compete. So, your original question of robbing Peter to pay Paul could also be one of seeing countries rising and falling on this economic tide. It certainly seems like it will favor the US and that generally should be good for our economy. Regards, Mark PS Did Tom Porter or Mark G give his talk on the state of disk drives to the Magnetics Society at Santa Clara Uni this year? Did you go?

To: Gottfried who wrote (1823)	6/13/1999 7:55:00 PM
From: Mark Oliver	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 2025

Some further opinion on what the Internet will bring in change. I live in a small town. They have one big grocer and most all of the other shops are small business. This leads to very high priced Mom and Pop distribution. It's a tax of a sort to pay the extra cost of buying from these people, but maybe the community is better off? I don't know. Certainly, we have a lot of support from local business for all those things like surf lifesaving, pre-schools, dune care, etc. I do know that the local grocer is really a black hole of lost money. They employ mostly kids under 18 for cheaper labor, they use their lack of competition to charge very high prices and they give nothing back to the community. So, eventually, there will be a change. Either a new shopping center will come in with a discount store like K-Mart, or the Internet will come in and offer prices that even Australia's discounters don't offer. For sure, many goods and services are going to be devalued. Many businesses will fail. Also interesting is they are thrashing out to everyone's discontent, a General Sales Tax. This will raise prices to the consumer on everything, except Internet goods purchased from an overseas distributor. Now, you'll save 10+% buying on the net and that will pay the shipping. But in the end, is all this good for society? Do the displaced people get better jobs? I think that is doubtful. I certainly think it is possible, but I think we need a friendly arbitrator to ease this change. I sure wish we had a good government to help. We had a little chat yesterday about my Australian friend's first disillusionment over America when he read Grapes of Wrath. What happens to the people who are moved off their dead land (Internet victims)? Will there be people standing at the border of the Promised Land with bats trying to send them back like the Oakies found when they crossed the dessert into California. Will they find work camps that offer poor wages and work conditions like those many may face working in UPS/FDX style warehouses? How many will have the skills to develop and support software? Regards, Mark PS Here's an interesting IPO to watch. zdnet.com

To: Gottfried who wrote (1823)	6/14/1999 2:26:00 PM
From: Z Analyzer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2025

<<Mark, I've had a nagging question for some time: does the internet create new jobs/sales or does it just take them away from conventional sales channels? Asked another way: does the net cause new spending, and if so, where does this money come from? Savings? I don't think anyone here has the answers.>> I obviously don't have the answer but that never stopped me from pretending I did! By being able to buy things more cheaply, everyone can buy more, increasing the number of PRODUCTIVE jobs (unneeded distribution is not productive-look at Japan) and raising the overall standard of living. It may be a different local story if the local shopkeepers Mark Oliver refers to try to remain a 14th century backwater in the future, global economy. -Z