Where to From Here?

A Race Against the Machine for Jobs?

I wrote the above blog article as a way to try to make more sense of the "Occupy Wall Street"  and this growing movement now in between about 900 to 1000 or more cities worldwide. I feel this movement is just getting going and likely will grow over time. The grievances are many for the common people of the western world and for the entire world for that matter. So, unless people find a way to feed themselves worldwide this movement likely will keep growing until some kind of balance is reached. Today it is an Iraq Veteran who is in the Hospital with a concussion. Likely tomorrow it will be someone else. But until a way is found to give the people some dignity in all this then they will only want their tax money back from all the banks. In the end "Who is going to bail all their lives?" Until some fairness is found for them the "Occupy Wall Street" movement will only continue to grow. It is inevitable.

However, Global Climate change and earth changes are simultaneously preventing both the manufacture of goods in places  like Bangkok, Thailand and in Fukushima and northern Japan from the Tsunami and radiation leaks and the aftermath as well as other places for various reasons worldwide. Then you have all the farmland in Japan that cannot be used because of radiation or because it is underwater and all the land that temporarily is flooded in Thailand and other places or is experiencing drought so no food can be grown and you inevitably watch food prices going higher and higher worldwide for less and less total food grown. To add the the problem the instability of currencies worldwide only leads to more commodity speculation which only increases the price of food worldwide exponentially worldwide. In the end those who cannot either work for food, beg for food, or sadly steal some food will not survive these present conditions. And this likely includes up to 50% of the human race at this point. So, 3 1/2 billion people are struggling to survive worldwide just to eat right now. What kinds of changes this will cause worldwide in the next 10 to 50 years can only be speculated at present. And even though computer models will show some of it, remember, people are very unpredictable both individually and collectively in the end.

Electric Power is still being rationed in Japan and still isn't completely back to normal even 6 months   after the Nuclear disaster at Fukushima and the Tsunami. I recently heard that the Fukushima Nuclear disaster is now considered by most experts as 40% as bad as what happened in Chernobyl in its radiation effects on earth, air and sea life including humans.

Here is a news quote in regard to the rationing of power in Japan:

http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/jr-east-announces-end-to-power-saving-timetable

JR East announces end to power-saving timetable

National Sep. 04, 2011 - 06:47AM JST ( 19 )

TOKYO —

JR East has announced that train services in Tokyo, which had been running on a “power-saving timetable” since June 24, are to return to normal scheduling from Sept 9. However, JR also announced Saturday that in response to continuing electricity supply concerns, some services would be cutting back on lighting and air-conditioning.
Local trains on the Musashino, Nambu and Sobu Lines returned to their normal schedules in mid-August in response to customer complaints that the gap between services was too long.
The announcement comes in response to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s decision last week to bring forward the expiry date of its mandatory curb on electricity consumption for most of Tokyo Electric Power Co’s service area from Sept 22 to Sept 9, having determined the country’s heat wave was coming to an end.
The Japanese government had required large-scale electricity users to cut their peak-hour consumption by 15% due to power constraints following the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which was triggered by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
The ministry already removed a similar restriction in Tohoku Electric’s territory, severely hit by the earthquake and tsunami, on Friday instead of Sept 9 as previously scheduled.end quote.

Also, if large scale electricity users like big companies like Toyota, Honda and Subaru and many  others are having to reduce power consumption by 15% that means that possibly 15% less goods are manufactured for shipment overseas. Since Thailand took up some of this slack now it is flooded too. So, that leaves other countries to try to take up the slack on goods produced by these and many other countries. So, one likely has and will see disjointedness and unemployment some places with opportunities eventually for new employment in other areas and countries as a result of all the natural disasters. However, when companies have to move and retool often this incurs extra expenses and those costs have to be passed onto the consumers in whichever country those products are sold.