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The United States of Amazon


Mallette

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Okies, friends. Let your mind consider this as a science fiction story. I think you may find it easier to handle that way.

 

It is 2040. Every home in America has a roof top drone pad capable of holding a 2000 lb drone. It is multi-purpose. First, it supplies 90 percent of everything the home requires. Food, prescriptions, clothing, groceries, books, electronics...pretty much everything. It is automatically disconnected from the drone and lowered into the home. If multi-floored, it goes to the correct floor. Heavy items are on battery powered dollies for easy movement to the correct room. How much does this cost? It's Amazon Prime, and now truly PRIME. Big items are transported by autonomous trucks.

 

You have no car. As the silent Prime drones deliver something or someone nearby...which is going on constantly, if one is closest to your home when you summon a ride it is there in a couple of minutes, now ready for human transport in speed, comfort, and safety.

 

StarlinerAmazon.thumb.png.a955750fbaf66416856a083cac4a1466.pngAmazon's fleet of the descendants of SpaceX's Starliner spacecraft move freight and people anywhere in the world in 30 minutes. Deliveries of goods and passengers are made to orbital stations, the moon, and Mars on a regular basis.

 

Amazon is now equal to the government in revenue and far more efficient. Over its four decades of existence it has swallowed Walmart, the grocery stores, the hardware stores, Ebay, Craigs List, and pretty much every other retail business. The majority of Americans see doctors in the Amazon Network, go to Amazon Clinics, Amazon ER's, And Amazon Hospitals. Some independents exist but are considered out of network for Amazon insurance.

 

Starship.thumb.jpg.705ebc9f26fae47c44c3e0a24416eaeb.jpgFar fetched? What if someone told you in 1960 that a company would arise in some little town in NW Arkansas that would take over the majority of all grocery and general goods sales in the US in 40 years while destroying entire city centers, leaving your neighborhood mom and pop store history, changing the makeup of the nation, and becoming the largest employer the world has ever seen? Wanna see what about a trillion dollars will do for a backwater area of Arkansas? Drive the Fayetteville to Bentonville corridor. You will be stunned.

 

Amazon is the successor and it's my prediction it will have an even more profound effect than Walmart.

Can anyone deny that Walmart is America's store? Perhaps America will be come Amazon's country.

Believe it could happen? Why or why not? Good witch or bad witch?

Discuss among yourselves...

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For me, one of the least remembered but perhaps the most important speech of the 20th century.

 

Military-Industrial Complex Speech, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961

 

"This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.

In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.

Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.

The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present

and is gravely to be regarded. Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientifictechnological elite.

It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system -- ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society."

Dave

 

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1 hour ago, capo72 said:

"Prime citizens.....please return to your Prime homes for a message from your Prime leader"

 

I don't do Prime......paying a fee for benefits. I order from amazon; my stuff just might take two more days to arrive @ my house. Big deal.

 

Amazon was way better 3 years ago when they didn't collect any sales taxes at all.

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48 minutes ago, polizzio said:

 

I don't do Prime......paying a fee for benefits. I order from amazon; my stuff just might take two more days to arrive @ my house. Big deal.

 

Amazon was way better 3 years ago when they didn't collect any sales taxes at all.

 

I used to think that, until I cut my cable. Prime was now 'free' as a sunk cost because it was Prime or Netflix (for more per month).  I am not happy about feeding the beast (the one that does not pay taxes), but I do like the TV, music and fast shipping.  I am conflicted at best.

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6 hours ago, tigerwoodKhorns said:

 

I used to think that, until I cut my cable. Prime was now 'free' as a sunk cost because it was Prime or Netflix (for more per month).  I am not happy about feeding the beast (the one that does not pay taxes), but I do like the TV, music and fast shipping.  I am conflicted at best.

My "cheap-@ss" checked into Prime at your urging, and there was nothing else I wanted.  I don't care to pay for streaming video or music. 

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12 hours ago, Jeff Matthews said:

My "cheap-@ss" checked into Prime at your urging, and there was nothing else I wanted.  I don't care to pay for streaming video or music. 

That makes sense.  I never was interested in Prime until I got rid of cable and then had to get a streaming service.  Now I like it but without the streaming I would probably get rid of it.  To respond to your post in the other thread, one nice thing is that I never have to look for another item for free shipping, so maybe there are some savings there. 

 

Similarly, I don't have a Costco membership.  Not worth the $60 per year.  I don't eat food that is prepackaged and cannot see buying so much at once. 

 

 

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1 hour ago, kevinmi said:

I thought we had anti-monopoly laws to prevent this kind of scenario.

You can purchase anything that amazon has, with the exception of specific Amazon products, wherever you want.  I know plenty of people that don't use Amazon at all, I'm not one of them.  

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