Conservative Tom Still Has His Flip Phone So This Article Makes Lots Of Sense!

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Technology is a distraction, not a solution

Posted on February 18, 2016 by GS Early

Call it a coincidence, but I just stumbled across two seemingly unrelated articles that are shouting one point to me.

The first was sent to me by a friend who worked as a private sector intelligence analyst and now runs his own shop, with some significant contracts with Palantir, a Palo Alto, California-based firm that has significant ties to the U.S. intelligence community. Go figure.

But it’s nice to have someone like this keep me informed of stories that pique his interest.

He sent me an article that talks about how most of the drones that the border patrol and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have bought over the past number of years are essentially worthless in stopping illegal immigration and, more specifically, drug trafficking.

Apparently, because most of the drones they bought aren’t up to military specifications, their software, especially their global positioning satellite (GPS) systems, are easily hacked. That means DHS sends them out and the bad guys send them flying somewhere else while they smuggle their contraband across the border.

Here’s an especially revealing excerpt from the article for a clearer understanding of your tax dollars not at work:

DHS had taken delivery of 11 MQ-9 Reaper drones, unarmed but otherwise similar to the ones used by the military in Iraq and Afghanistan. DHS anticipated that the cost per flight hour would be $2,468, far lower than the actual $12,225. The agency was using accounting tricks to move the costs of pilots, equipment, and overhead off the books. Even the actual flights hours — 5,102 — were a fraction of the promised 23,296. As a result, large areas and portions of the border were left undefended. More damning, CBP had little to show for the big price tag. UAVs helped in just 2 percent of apprehensions on the southwest border. The audit came out just as DHS was asking Congress to give it $443 million for another 14 Reapers, also called Predator Bs, which the agency received.

The other article was the recent issue of Foreign Affairs about bringing techno-optimists back to Earth.

After running a number of analyses about productivity over the centuries, it’s fairly clear that all our technology is not making life any better or easier than it was many decades ago. That most of the significant technological advancements really came almost a century ago and even the Computer Age hasn’t really done much for worker productivity or quality of life.

For example, we still use the same electrical grid, internal combustion engine, telephones, radio. We also move across the country in the same manner and about the same speed as we have for decades.

What high tech has done is allow employers to replace workers with automation, which is great for the bank account of the employer, but not so much for the laid off workers. Run this technological “upgrade” across all industries and you can start to understand why fewer people hold more wealth and the middle class is imploding.

So, my takeaway from these two disparate sources of information is this: Technology is a shiny object that distracts us from the real economy and the real challenges that face us.

And those challenges will not be solved by more technology.

The one thing that’s certain is what Bob Livingston has been saying for years, it’s crucial you keep your money safe, away from federal government controls and out of the banking system as much as possible.

We’re facing some serious headwinds domestically and internationally. If the U.S. economy starts to roll over right now, the rest of the world is in no position to cushion that fall.

Commodity prices are in the toilet because China isn’t growing any longer. Since most of the commodities are pulled out of South America and Africa, these emerging markets are spiraling down. Europe can’t manage Greece’s or Portugal’s issues and now they have millions of refugees flooding in as well. Oil prices are decimating the U.S. energy patch are threatening to bring down the banks with them.

None of these real issues can be ameliorated by technology.

What to do?

The simple answer, and one Bob has talked about more than once, is to get your assets off the grid as much as you can.

Now, sticking money under your mattress may be safe, but it isn’t going to help you keep up with inflation. The smart solution right now is to look to gold and silver bullion. Nothing fancy. If you prefer to diversify, grab a couple exchange-traded funds (like GLD, PHYS, PSLV or SLV) if you believe they hold the metals they say they do.

Also buy some bullion or non-collectible coins (no reason to pay a premium for the coin, it’s the precious metal you want). Gold (and silver to a great extent) prices have been manipulated for more than a decade by banks and institutional traders. But now the economy is making the manipulation impossible to maintain. When these artificial shackles come off prices are going to soar.