Notations From the Grid : A Reminder of Where We've Been...and Where we're going.....

It has been a challenging year already with all that has gone on in our World.   Our team decided, once again to celebrate the achievements and really reflect upon the possibilities as epitomized by this image we have chosen.   It must also be of note that despite all the challenging times we've been witness to, this chronology courtesy of +Peter H. Diamandis underscores the art of the possible and how the future is indeed bright: 

In 1917...

One hundred years ago, things looked a little bit different.

1. World Literacy Rates

- 1917: The world literacy rate was only 23%.

- Today: Depending on estimates, the world literacy rate today is 86.1%.

2. Travel Time

- 1917: It took 5 days to get from London to New York; 3.5 months to travel from London to Australia.

- Today: A nonstop flight gets you from London to New York in a little over 8 hours, and you can fly from London to Australia in about a day, with just one stop.

3. Average Price of a U.S. House

- 1917: The average price of a U.S. house was $5,000. ($111,584.29 when adjusted for inflation)

- Today: As of 2010, the average price of a new home sold in the U.S. was $272,900.

4. The First Hamburger

- 1917: The hamburger bun invented by a fry cook named Walter Anderson, who co-founded White Castle.

- Today: On average, Americans eat three hamburgers a week. That's a national total of nearly 50 billion burgers per year. And now we’re even inventing 100% plant-based beef burgers… produced by Impossible Foods and available at select restaurants.

5. Average Price of a Car in the U.S.

- 1917: The average price of a car in the U.S. was $400 ($8,926.74 when adjusted for inflation)

- Today: The average car price in the U.S. was $34,968 as of January 2017.

6. The First Boeing Aircraft

- 1917: A Boeing aircraft flew for the first time on June 15.

- Today: In 2015, there were almost 24,000 turboprop and regional aircraft, as well as wide body and narrow body jets, in service worldwide.

7. Coca-Cola

- 1917: On July 1, 1916, Coca-Cola introduced its current formula to the market.

- Today: Today, Coca-Cola has a market cap of about $178 billion with 2015 net operating revenues over $44 billion. Each day, over 1.9 billion servings of Coca-Cola drinks are enjoyed in more than 200 countries.

7. Average U.S. Wages

- 1917: The average U.S. hourly wage was 22 cents an hour ($4.90 per hour when adjusted for inflation)

- Today: The average U.S. hourly wage is approximately $26 per hour.

8. Supermarkets

- 1917: The first "super" market, PigglyWiggly, opened on September 6, 1916 in Memphis, TN.

- Today: In 2015, there were 38,015 supermarkets, employing 3.4 million people and generating sales of about $650 billion.

9. Billionaires

- 1917: John D. Rockefeller became the world's first billionaire on September 29.

- Today: There are approximately 1,810 billionaires, and their aggregate net worth is $6.5 trillion.

For context, Rockefeller’s net worth in today’s dollars would have been about $340 billion. Bill Gates, the world’s richest man, is worth $84 billion today.

10. Telephones (Landlines vs. Cellphones)

- 1917: Only 8% of homes had a landline telephone.

- Today: Forget landlines! In the U.S., nearly 80% of the population has a smartphone (a supercomputer in their pockets). Nearly half of all American households now use only cellphones rather than older landlines. And as far as cost, today, you can Skype anywhere in the world for free over a WiFi network.

11. Traffic (Horses to Cars)

- 1917: In 1912, traffic counts in New York showed more cars than horses for the first time.

- Today: There were approximately 253 million cars and trucks on U.S. roads in 2015.

12. US Population

- 1917: The U.S. population broke 100 million, and the global population reached 1.9 billion.

- Today: The U.S. population is 320 million, and the global population broke 7.5 billion this year.

13. Inventions and Technology

- 1917: The major tech invention in 1917? The toggle light switch.

- Today: The major tech invention of today? CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology, which enables us to reprogram life as we know it. And we are making strides in AI, robotics, sensors, networks, synthetic biology, materials science, space exploration and more every day.

14. High School Graduation Rates

- 1917: Only 6% of all Americans had graduated from high school.

- Today: Over 80% of all Americans graduated high school this past year.

15. Cost of Bread

- 1917: A loaf of bread was $0.07 ($1.50 when adjusted for inflation)

- Today: A loaf of bread costs $2.37.

16. Speed Limits

- 1917: The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.

- Today: The maximum speed limit in most cities is about 70 mph.

Just wait for the next 100 years.

View of the Week (Special Edition): The 2017 Budget Outlook

The 2017 Budget and Economic Outlook from Congressional Budget Office

Notations On Our World (Weekly Edition): On @POTUS Watch & The Future

The weekend here in the United States has been dominated by President Trump's assertions about President Obama having authorized a wiretap on him.    Based on all indications, it simply cannot be done as it must be authorized by a Court.     The Republicans are noting that they would be investigating this.   This is also as the Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, amended his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee as charges of perjury continues to be noted against The Attorney General--including assertions that he has violated a law called the False Statements Act.  This is as the Republicans just announced their Obamacare replacement that is yet to address some key provisions.

Beyond the Shores of the United States, there are changes going on in Europe as we speak.    One very interesting group that has begun in Europe was begun by the Former Greek Finance Minister with some key provisions as part of the alternatives that is emerging today with this Manifesto by 

.."A MANIFESTO FOR DEMOCRATISING EUROPE

For all their concerns with global competitiveness, migration, and terrorism, only one prospect truly terrifies the Powers of Europe: Democracy! They speak in democracy’s name but only to deny, exercise and suppress it in practice. They seek to co-opt, evade, corrupt, mystify, usurp and manipulate democracy in order to break its energy and arrest its possibilities.

As we have been reflecting upon the on-going transformation, we wanted to make sure we reported on this recent "blast From the Past" as one of the leading intellectuals of our time, Tariq Ali, noted why Trump won:  




As the political upheaval in Washington and beyond is continuing, some key challenges are before us. The future is automated--and we seem not to have an answer, yet as underscored by the reality laid out in this snapshot courtesy of the team at +Wefunder:  

45% of U.S. Jobs could be automated in the next 20 years "First, computers will start replacing people in especially vulnerable fields like transportation/logistics, production labor, and administrative support. Jobs in services, sales, and construction may also be lost in this first stage."

3 MINUTES OF TECH: AUTOMATED JOBS The Future is Automated—Here's the Breakdown Workplace automation is inevitable and approaching faster than we may have expected. But as Bill Gates noted in a recent interview, it's important we figure how it's coming, how fast, and how do we prevent it from throwing the world out of whack. Here are three key issues to keep in mind when discussing job automation: 1. Automation Will Unbalance Blue Collar Jobs First (and Fast) The U.S. has lost 5 million jobs in manufacturing since 2000—and it's not just because we're sending jobs overseas. More and more, automation is becoming the primary reason behind job loss. The most visible loss will be in transportation. Over 1 million Americans get behind the wheel to drive trucks cross-country. Another million or so drive Ubers, taxis, and buses. 2. Middle Class Jobs Are Also in Danger Stephen Hawking said it best: "the rise of artificial intelligence is likely to extend this job destruction deep into the middle classes, with only the most caring, creative or supervisory roles remaining." For instance, there are already software programs that can research and surface documents faster than any paralegal—making a 20-person team effort into single-person job. 3. Taxing Robots? Earlier this week, Bill Gates had the tech community a-buzz by suggesting the government should tax robots. He argues a robot tax would slow a potentially disastrous displacement of workers. The U.S. could then also finance valuable ventures such as training displaced workers, taking care of the elderly, and having smaller class sizes. In essence, having the automation tax fuel empathy-driven jobs robots could never take over.