Observations From the Spectrum

I am an optimist and a realist and through those lenses I create my POV. I am not blind or ignorant of the past. It was what it was. Their now. Our now looking back is hindsight. Looking and moving forward is all we have. Those who are allowing the House to win can’t or choose not to see.

Anyone who has ever researched Las Vegas has come across the idiom ‘The House Always Wins.’ It simply means that when gambling, the casinos always finish in the green. Now, does this mean that there are no winners? Absolutely not. There wouldn’t be a house if there were only losers. 

What it does mean is that even though some may win or seem to believe that they have beaten the house, they have not. The house rakes in money and power over those that consume their false hope. 

Look at the math of Casinos or Lottery. Both are billion dollar industries that collect wages. Consumers spend billions of dollars so that the owner class can continue to get rich. It’s beautiful if you are at the top. Illogical, once deconstructed, if you are at the bottom. 

Anyone who plays Lottery or Gambles would be better off taking the money and investing it into the Casinos and the State that are selling the product. Period. I am sure it is over a 10% return of investment. 

We know this. This is not news to anyone. Yet, millions of people still go to Las Vegas yearly and millions of people buy Lottery tickets daily. Why? Manufactured hope in moving up the social or economic stratosphere without doing the work. A win of a lifetime if you hit the jackpot.

The House may change. We have seen power globally migrate from East to West and back again over the centuries. Holding the power is not guaranteed. It is fluid. Revolutions occur that shift who has the control. Example, Saudi Arabia and the Middle East had nothing for 1000s of years. They were off the radar of Western Civilization ironically as a rest stop between the Far East and Europe. Now, they are one of the Houses that rule the world.

Which brings me to the point. Anyone thinking that any invention being created that automates any type of work will be used for the ‘greater good’ is blind by the same manufactured hope of the Casino and Lottery.

The reality is simple and the landscape somewhat stark. We live in a capitalist society. The basic premise of unfettered capitalism is to make money. The highest cost that pulls money away from profits is and always will be wages. It is why slavery was so useful for the cotton and tobacco industries and why they both still have such a stronghold globally. I bet the plantation owners were stoked when the cotton in 1793 was invented. They needed to buy less slaves.

Today, there is this idea that manufacturing will be brought back to the US and that AI is going to help the working class work more efficiently. Both are manufactured ideas dropped into our consciousness by the House. We want to believe or are taught to believe because the alternative is so scary.

To think that any business owner would rather pay a team instead of one employee and a professional level AI Chatbot is laughable. Just as it is laughable to think that if manufacturing is being brought back to the US that there will be many high-paying jobs available. Why would a capitalist do it? Out of the goodness of their green hearts? I think not.

No one wants to pay $50 dollars for a water bottle or $20 for a toothbrush. Consumers, those who can afford to buy, want these and all products cheap. We would rather have someone being paid a dollar a day to make them because then we can afford them and they have a livelihood too. Hence the success of China and India. Cost of living is low there which makes the production of goods affordable for us.

The only reason why manufacturing would be brought back is if the technology is there to almost fully automate the production therefore needing less hands, not more. That’s how it works.

So what is on the horizon? I hope my prediction is wrong but what I see is the House winning and the rest of us gambling for table scraps now and in the future. Would love to know what you think?