Priorities
by Raymond M. Coulombe

As I write this, trillions of dollars are in the process of disappearing from the stock market. Trillions. Think about it. Carl Sagan, when talking about the immensity of the universe, could only work up to billions and billions. Day in and day out I deal with the products of imagination: science fiction and fantasy, but nothing compares to economics.

Here's the weird thing. Trillions of dollars have disappeared. Where did they go? They couldn't have been real dollars in the first place. A trillion of anything would make a mighty big pile that just cannot be swept under the rug. With science, matter and energy must be conserved. It can be changed, but it just can't disappear. Apparently economics has little to do with science, so my guess is it's all fantasy -magic, if you will.

Not all of this money was fantasy. A lot of it was turned into yachts, mansions, gold, diamonds, and other real physical things. Neat trick. It's just a shame that all the magic money ended up in the hands of greedy CEO's and other company officers. Imagine what a few trillion of those magic dollars could do for space exploration. Billions spent colonizing Mars would be a bargin, a mere drop in the bucket. I think that would be a better legacy than a huge mansion in Florida, a state, by the way, that protects personal property from nasty things like former shareholders attempting to get some of their money back. But I digress. I'm not bitter. I'd just like to see some of that fantasy money going into something fun.

The US military has some fun stuff: satellites, rockets, jets that are half way to being space ships, lasers and don't forget, nuclear weapons. No telling what classified toys they have. Really, NO TELLING. Nod nod, wink wink. Join the military and you may get to play with toys that were science fiction just a short while ago. It's a darn shame that much of that cool stuff is used in very uncool ways. If we could convince the military that "the enemy" was on Mars, they'd have special forces troops there inside of a month.

Here's the really weird thing. All that science fiction type futuristic stuff is being used to do things like protect oil supplies. The only reason we are still in a hydrocarbon civilization is politics. Look at the oil background of the current administration. I rest my case. Hydrocarbons were a good idea in their time, but that time is past. At the very least, we should be in a hydrogen economy by now. Wind and solar have much to offer. We do have the technologies sitting on shelves ready to go. All we need is the political will to . . . oh, never mind. Politics again.

On the other hand, since the new technology is such an obviously good idea it should eventually come into common usage. The key word here is eventually. I've gotten most of my electricity from the sun for the last 12 years . I did it in northern New England, not exactly one of the prime solar locations. I installed it because it was a good idea. Relying on an electric company to keep power up and running way out in the back country is a bad idea. I got sick of being plunged back into the 19th century every time there was a storm.

Speaking of bad ideas, how many of you placed your retirement funds in the stock market? Sorry to bring that up again. Next time why not invest in things like solar panels? They keep working decade after decade, and you no longer have to send a check to the power company. Believe me, it's a real comfort to know that no matter how tight things get, the lights will stay on. Instead of WorldCom stocks, wouldn't it have been neat to have invested in your own personal wind farm? Hell, wouldn't it have been neat to invest in beer? At least you'd have the aluminum cans.

You could have even done better investing in Quantum Muse. We don't make much money, but at least we don't pretend to make it, like WorldCom, Enron, and all the rest. In fact, we are in better financial shape than a world wide communications company once valued at billions of dollars. Of course, so is a kid with $4.27 in a piggy bank. And people wonder why we don't take finances more seriously.

The good news about the stock market "decline" I dare not say "crash" is that people may just reassess their priorities. That might be a good thing. Instead of investing in fictional companies, (at least their accounting was fictional) why not invest in yourself? Education can't be repossessed, and I'm not just talking about formal education. Heck, time spent learning really good beer recipes would have been a better use of one's energy than studying company business statements. Why facilitate the dreams of greedy CEO's and politicians? Why not invest in your own dreams? It's all a matter of priorities.

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