Hi Dave,
There is the big picture, and the small picture to everything. I believe we are talking different pictures.
Re: World peace and all that,...the little picture is the individual can ignore what you ignore, but if the nation does, it eventually gets invaded in some way, physically by an army, or perhaps financially by corporations,...I'm discussing the big picture. But of course, I'm nuts and silly.
Re: Mania in internet communications,...again there is a big picture and a little picture,...it is easy to look at individual internut companies and say they are overvalued,..that is the mania,...many are crap. Coming from a mining background an analogy comes to mind. There is the main play, and all the area plays. The main play is real, and the area plays are hope and mania,...sometimes. To say the internet is mania, is the argument,...I disagree. Big picture vs. little picture.
The main play in internet is the fact that several industries are merging together now to form a huge communication industry that can provide a multitude of services to all. Television and all the industries associated with it, telephone and all the industries associated with it, wireless, advertising, financial services, education, government services etc., etc., etc., are merging and joining the internet world. That's why banks, entertainment industries, financial institutions, etc., are jumping on the internet bandwagon. Companies making big money off the internet number in the thousands. Discount brokers, portals, service providers, internet construction companies, computers manufacturers (desktop, server, mainframe, portable, handheld), software providers, information providers, media providers, education providers, financial services providers, insurers, point of sale services,etc., etc.
The problem with the people who poo-poo the internet is all they see is the turkey internet companies the brokerage industry has been serving up to the gaggle of wanne-be millionaires out there who gamble in the market, but fail to notice the large number of companies that are jumping on to the internet and making money. Up here in Canuck land, all five big banks are establishing large numbers of internet financial services and e-commerce malls. I wonder why if it's just mania. GE capital just partnered with Bid.com, a Canadian auction internet company. Telephone companies are merging with television companies to provide internet services because they envision the internet and television and telephone merging shortly. The revenues of companies like Cisco, AOL, Yahoo, Sun, JDS, Northern Telecom, Nokia, Qualcomm, internet services provided by banks, brokers, financial institutions, communications services over the internet (voice, data, pictures), computer and software manufacturers,.......you add it up, revenues in the trillions, profits in the billions. The internet will soon include any device that communicates through wires, cable, airwaves (of whatever type) because all these information transport mechanisms are merging. The glory is that all parts of the world (baring political interference-which leads us back to the first point)will be able to see and communicate with the rest of the world, in real time, and the 80% of communication that you and I are losing by not talking in the same room (body language, tone etc) will be present in high quality real time video,....once bandwidth and speed of transfer improve using fiber optics and improved wireless communication.
I've said my piece,...I don't think we differ that much if at all, I'm talking one picture, you another. The view of many people on this thread is the internet is crap, and is just taking money from the gold industry. If the gold industry had as incredible a future as the internet, money would flow there. To think the internet is crap, and a mania, shortchanges a large number of real companies that are investing trillions of dollars in it right now. The internet is not the dozens of Edsels out there that are area plays. Shift through the chit, and you will find a lot of companies that are going to make a crapload of money in the future,...I believe we agree on that. Rather than continuing this discussion, I think we should both get busy sifting. For those that don't believe,...too bad. |
