Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: elmatador who wrote (65806)	8/28/2010 3:08:12 PM
From: Maurice Winn	1 Recommendation Respond to of 217737

ElM, it's a terrible situation when we agree. That Singer-Prebisch observation [so-called theory] was perhaps right for the time but irrelevant and certainly not describing any long-term reality. I am sitting on a rock on the edge of a lagoon on Rarotonga, connected via a Zenbu wifi zone at The Dive Centre contemplating such things as the Singer-Prebisch ideas which have been in action here for centuries. Young people migrate to places like NZ, Oz and further afield for economic opportunity when they are sitting on potentially one of the jewels of the planet. Their thinking here is to get tourists. Tourists are okay but living off tourists is a bit like running a live show in a theatre. It's great fun to be in the play and both the audience and actors enjoy a fantasy respite from reality. But it is just an act and when the cold grey of dawn looms again on a wintry morning [which fortunately doesn't exist here], it's time to till the soil, harvest the crops, repair the roads, climb the poles and paint the hull of the supply ships. The price of things here is crazy. On average over double or triple NZ prices for basic comestibles such as eggs, broccoli, potatoes and other easily grown foods. Internet is triple the price and horribly slow, with latency to boot. Zenbu is NZ30c per megabyte compared with NZ10c in NZ or free in NZ if the proprietor gives it away which many do and can afford to do. They need here a Globalstar gateway and a fibre dropping off pacificfibre.net with some high poles to whiz the signal around the island though it wouldn't be difficult to run a 32 kilometre ring around the road with spurs or wireless to all the buildings. Then 100,000 Geeks, or 1 million, could set up shop here and run the internet around the world. 100,000 x $100,000 = $10 billion a year which is real income. They wouldn't need income tax or much tax at all, if any. Perhaps some tax on petrol/diesel, airport fees, entry levies and whatnot. They could have the world headquarters of companies based here operating tax-free. Hong Kong would be expensive and very un-free by comparison. The locals could stay here and earn a great living supplying Geeks. That Singer-Prebisch theory is over-taken by the technological and cyberspace revolutions, economies of scale, the Flynn Effect, globalisation and shifts in values of resources. Everything constantly rebalances and they just described the situation at the time - too many people needing to be rebalanced. Wow, look at all these motor scooters zipping by. They need to be electric, with two moving parts [two wheels]. It's a short walk up the central hills to escape tsunamis so even that wouldn't be a problem. It would be an excellent wintering location for Geeks wanting time off from northern winters even if they didn't stay here full time. Cyberspace doesn't require patents to be profitable. Zenbu has no patents. Laying fibre across the Pacific Ocean doesn't require patents, just capital. This lagoon I'm sitting by looks remarkably like a fish farm which hasn't been stocked yet. Come to think of it, the surrounding ocean looks like a giant fish farm. You should be here installing a fibre ring and a bunch of wireless cyberspace poles. You should not be shirtless up the Amazon chasing cocoa beans or eels. Mqurice