Phillip Tilley

The paper economy

July 10, 2009 |  4 comments
Image Credit: sxc.hu A lot of people have lost their jobs due to the recent depression, but an inordinate amount of job losses have come from the paper economy. What do I mean by that? The economy is really an oversized game of rock-paper-scissors. In the game of rock-paper-scissors, three hand gestures are used. A fist represents rock, an open hand represents paper and the index and middle fingers separated like a sideways peace sign represents scissors. In the game, two opponents count out loud to three, then extend one of the hand gestures. Rock breaks scissors, rock wins. Scissors cut paper, scissors win. Paper covers rock, paper wins. In the event of a tie you go again until someone wins. Ultimately someone always wins and someone always loses, just like the economy.

At the end of WWII the U.S. had an economy based on rock. It consisted of agriculture, manufacturing, construction and the extractive industries of timber, mining and oil production. These are all solid core industries, thus represented by rock. Currently less than 9% of jobs in the U.S. are in manufacturing.

In the late seventies and early eighties the economy began moving away from the core industries to the paper economy. This consisted of jobs that shuffle paper and contribute no real tangible product to the economy. These include clerks and secretaries, realtors, financial planners, insurance salesmen, accountants, lawyers, all government workers, salesmen and environmentalists. Yes, before anyone else says it writers are also part of the paper economy.

You probably never thought of salesmen as paper pushers, but they are for the most part. If you go to a car lot to buy a car the salesman does not sell you a car, you went there because you wanted to buy one. The salesman only facilitates the paper work so the deal can be made. Most salesman jobs are like the stock market where a broker sells a product they do not even have possession of.

The internet and e-commerce are making these jobs obsolete. Small companies can develop a web site and sell their product all over the world with virtually no middle men.

Scissors are the management jobs that are cutting the paper jobs. They eliminate these unnecessary jobs as a cost savings so they can continue doing business in a tough economy without loosing productivity or profits. If the jobs are not necessary now, why were they ever necessary? These jobs are busy-work jobs, keeping you busy shuffling paper so you do not notice the core industries are vanishing.

Paper jobs eliminated rock jobs, scissors are now cutting paper jobs. These jobs are gone forever. With so many people unemployed, where will the jobs for these people come from? The jobs they were trained in for the last thirty years are gone.

Some of these people will not need a new job because they will realize they are too old or too poor to get a different education and they will commit suicide. Others will take the severance package they got, if they were lucky enough to get one, or borrow heavily to go back to school to train for a new career. Others will take their severance or borrow heavily to start their own small business.

One question is, what will be the jobs they should train for or the businesses they should start? Suicide prevention councilors comes to mind but that will be short lived.

With the ageing of the population, health care providers of every type will be in demand. RN’s, LPN’s, Nurse Practitioners, Nurses Aids and Doctors, lab technicians, X-ray techs, respiratory and physical therapists are a few of these jobs. Traditionally nursing jobs were thought of as women’s work, but more and more male nurses are not the exception, they are the norm. In fact my neighbor Norm is a male nurse. I enjoyed nursing myself, but my Mother made me quit when I was two!With the major auto makers going out of business, bankrupt or scaling back in a major way, fewer cars will be traded in. Somebody has to become mechanics to keep the older cars running ever longer. Most mechanics I know are in their late 50’s and early 60’s. In short, they are a retiring and dying breed. Two years training at a Vo-Tech school can have you in an in-demand job that pays well.

Also expect new, small scale, regional auto manufacturers to spring up using new power sources and technologies. Remember at the beginning of the auto industry when fifty different companies made cars like Nash, Kiser-Frazer, Desoto, Hudson, Studebaker, Gram-Page, Rambler and Stanley? Expect a rebirth of that era.

Repairmen of every nature will be in demand as we throw away less and less. Durable goods will regain their original meaning as people have everything repaired and upgraded instead of replaced. Electronics and appliances, re-upholsters and plumbers and electricians will be in demand.

Currently 5% of the population produces all the food we eat in the U.S. Nobody else in the world produces food like the Americans. Some people will return to the family farms, but they will grow specialty crops in small quantities. Marijuana is the second largest agricultural crop in the U.S. Expect the new President to push for it to be made legal so it can be regulated and taxed. Mini farms consisting of only a couple acres could produce more income than one hundred acres of corn.

Also expect people to return to the hills prospecting and mining gold, silver and copper, coal and other minerals. In Montana alone there are gold, silver, copper, platinum, aluminum, nickel and coal mines operating right now like there is no tomorrow.

You should also expect an upswing in small scale wind, solar, bio-mass and other renewable energy to boom. Hemp oil alone could make us energy efficient in two years, creating jobs in the growing and refining of this multiple growing season crop.

Some people who lost their jobs are going to go on a desperate crime spree to feed their families. Not being career criminals, they will be easily caught and sent to prison. More prisons will be built to hold them creating construction jobs and jobs as prison guards. More police officers will also be needed to combat this crime wave.

The economic stimulus funding that was given to the monied elite bankers and the auto industry should have been given out in small business loans and education grants to the individuals willing to blaze the trail into the new economy. If you run your own small business you do not need middle management, and the rock smashes scissors as the economy returns to rock solid core industries. Not to mention if you run your own small business you fire yourself last!

Wake up people, the money matrix has you.

Phillip Tilley is author of The Money Matrix of the New World Order and other articles. Comments (4)

 Total Posts: 7,613,821    Topics: 316,786    Members: 201,933

 Not a member yet ? Click here to join - registration is free and only takes a moment!