Go-East-Young-Man-Bob Davis Podcast 1005

Go East Young Man

Go East Young Man. Certainly I love the west. But I’ve never been to Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. Ride along with me in Go-East-Young-Man-Bob Davis Podcast 1005.

Summer Travel

Firstly summer is the time to make this trip.

No Drought Here

Secondly we’re hearing a lot of drought talk because of the situation out west.

Lush Fields

However the fields through central Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and New York are lush.

Small Town Love

Meanwhile all along Route 2, US 6 and US 20 are some amazing small towns and places of interest.

History

Now what is interesting to me is unique.

Certainly history.

Industrial Revolution In Reverse

Therefore I am subtitling this podcast, “The Industrial Revolution Tour In Reverse”.

In other words the Industrial Revolution began in Rhode Island in the late 1700’s.

Then spread west.

Because I am headed east across America’s Industrial Heartland it’s the Industrial Revolution…in reverse!

Rust Belt?

In short they used to call this part of the country The Rust Belt. It’s not descriptive these days.

Help Wanted

These days there help wanted signs are everywhere through Indiana and Ohio.

Back Roads Rule

Even more back roads travel allows the nomad to get granular.

US and State Two Lane Highways

To clarify on these state and US Highways you see details you’d never see on the Interstates.

Mennonites On Bicycles

For example Mennonites on bicycles.

Not a band name.

A real thing.

Twentieth Century Story

Most importantly I get a sense of the development all across this area in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.

Firstly the farmers. Secondly the railroads. Finally the development of these small towns across northern tier.

As a result some of those towns became the big towns that wrote the twentieth century story.

Nomad Vibe

Above all this is one of the big reasons I became a nomad.

And why I love back roads.

Drive and Talk

To sum up sometimes the best thing is to drive and talk.

In conclusion that’s what Go-East-Young-Man-Bob Davis Podcast 1005 is all about.

Road Trip!

I’ve been on a lot of road trips with friends and they have always gotten a huge kick out of my observations.

So climb in and let’s go.

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Go-East-Young-Man-Bob Davis Podcast 1005

Podcast 334

Target Layoffs. While there’s a lot of news — or is that noise — about Hillary Clinton’s email, the iWatch from Apple and more nonsense than you can stand about the 2016 election cycle, some real news hits home in the Twin Cities as the crown jewel of Minneapolis Downtown, Target Corporation lays off 3100 people, mostly from the downtown headquarters. Target says the jobs will not be coming back. Of course the rah rah Minneapolis-Saint Paul media goes for the emotional angle; the human cost of layoffs and so forth, complete with soothing public relations from Governor Mark Dayton and the Target CEO. These people get 15 weeks of severance, we’re renewing our commitment to Minnesota and so on. Just last week General Mills, another Twin Cities mainstay let hundreds of middle managers go. When you look at these two big companies, you have to wonder if there’s something going on, despite rosy scenarios about the US Economic ‘recovery’. Over the years there’s been a lot of cheerleading and downtown boosterism from the biggest booster of them all, The Star Tribune. The ‘Trib’ is constantly promoting the Minnesota Miracle of Public-Private Partnerships and the wonders of what government can do for people. Is it a miracle?  Or becoming a bloated, bureaucratic, crony-capitalist cartel benefitting the rich sports team owners and companies big enough to benefit from the tax breaks? Is it too soon to start asking whether the template – the whole philosophy – of development in the urban centers of this state, is really an outdated, early twentieth century vision? The boosters say Millennials will move in to these downtown areas in droves, you’ll see. This week a new study shows that while some millennials are moving into dense urban centers with hipster apartments, bike trails and light rail, built and subsidized at enormous expense to taxpayers, not enough of them are moving into those downtown areas to be significant, when considering metro areas as a whole. Meanwhile, the tax bill in close ring suburbs goes higher and higher, as does a hamburger and a beer in downtown or uptown. And the same vision is pushed for the first ring suburbs like Saint Louis Park, Hopkins, Eden Prairie, Bloomington, and Richfield, to name a few. More and more big companies are using new technology to downsize and eliminate jobs in the vast middle level management job categories, especially in their ritzy downtown headquarters. 50 years ago Moore’s law established the integrated circuit as one of the most explosive forces in history. Today Moore’s law is back with a vengeance as we pass 25 billion transistors on one chip, we’re seeing exponential redoubling of capabilities, and the arrival of a very disruptive new age. Autonomous machines, robotics, drones, advanced communications, the Internet of things, and more, suggest the future imagined by the central planners in Saint Paul, The Met Council, the Capitol and at Minneapolis’ City Hall might be a dystopia after all. Live from the deck on the first Spring night 

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