death of hard copy

DEATH OF HARD COPY

This article is vaguely related to the economic collapse and somewhat ties in with prepping ( entertainment to combat cabin fever ), but is also in large part more of a “by my whimsy” selection. Sometimes I like to detour slightly from frugal prepping or causes of collapse. Hell, once I wrote on why the original Star Wars was so popular ( I dislike the theory that the public needed cheering up. The same year, Smokey And The Bandit and Oh, God! Did as good or better per theater and they were happy movies. click here for box office numbers ).

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My basic contention here is that digital ( defined as online, since even some hard copy is technically digital. A better definition is, well, No Hard Copy ) killed off hard copy but now digital is VERY expensive. Since by and large hard copy is spit upon now by lazy bastards too incapacitated to get out of their padded chairs, you can and should rush to invest and stockpile everything Hard Copy. I'll cover the different media and give good reasons to fear Digital. And yes, some is Collapse orientated so I don't go completely off the rails.

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Most preppers are entirely too serious. Oooo, I simply MUST have a FLIR scope. I MUST have freeze dried unicorn gall bladder. If I don't have an AR-15 I'll never triumph over hordes of Walkers! Relax, Francis. Odds are good you aren't really prepared at the level of Avoiding crowds and storing enough food for the die-off. You're going to die anyway. Three more magazines or one more semi-auto isn't going to make a difference. You can afford to invest a little into entertainment. Not a LOT, obviously. Everything in moderation, except wheat, ammo and paranoia.

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If you do it right, hard copy entertainment will cost you very little. And, if done right, you'll need very little electrical capacity to power up your entertainment. Every evening after supper, and through large parts of winter, you will have down time. Our far future might be Sunday church, Friday night dances, listening to someone play an instrument and bible reading as our sole entertainment, but for now we can survive nicely off of the wreckage of our Oil Age “circus” equipment. As in, “bread and circuses”. Large amounts of investments are made to keep us cheaply entertained.

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The problem, lately, is that “cheaply” is only relative. As the collapse moves along, everything gets more expensive while producing far less value. Half the population is now priced out of a new car. I for one can't afford to get sick, at all. By most standards, my affordable house is actually a hovel. Folks are getting squeezed in a nickel and dime, death by a thousand cuts manner as everything becomes affordable only to the 9%. This trend will not reverse. Higher unemployment means fewer workers need to contribute more to keep the monopoly institutions profitable.

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Going to the theater was never cheap, per se. Renting a video was never THAT cheap. Life in Leave It To Beaver wasn't always inexpensive. But wages relative to costs was far better. Now, renting or buying a video IS cheap, compared to what it used to be. Unless you go digital, and then at its worst day Blockbuster Video was a screaming bargain in comparison. Who thinks renting a digital download for $12 is a good idea? At least before when you went to a video store you could bootleg a copy.

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Now, if you wait a bit you can own a copy legally for half the cost the rental just was. You can rent at Redbox for $2, if you get off your ass. Even the same movie streaming from Redbox versus its hard copy rental is twice to three times as expensive. Who actually thinks streaming rentals is a good idea? I'm flabbergasted, myself. And yes, I know you can watch pirated new release movies. I don't need the stress involved in that. Your mileage may vary. My point is that going digital, costs have gotten out of control for movie rentals. The less it cost them the more we pay.

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My stepdaughters family recently got rid of all their hard copy movies. It was “taking up too much room”. I was more than happy to take it off their hands. Good luck keeping your digital copy after Amazon goes bankrupt. Our house is smaller, and I still found room to stash the DVD's. One day, Netflix gets too expensive, goes Full Retard SJW, or goes broke making mediocre content to compete with the House Of Mouse. I'll have something to watch in the evenings ( broadcast TV BLOWS supreme bloody chunks with insane levels of commercials ).

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And yes, I remember our discussions on DVD's eventually degrading and becoming unwatchable. I'm hoping to mostly avoid that by death beforehand, old age or a bullet, whichever. Not a perfect plan, granted. But movies are a secondary entertainment anyway. Mostly I plan on having plenty of reading material. I already have up to two thousand reference books, at least a third unread, and Dog knows how many paperback novels. Here is the thing with books. Buying digital is now more expensive, also. You may be confused, with your $10 a month Kindle Unlimited. Allow me to explain.

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If you had unlimited access to college student films, and YouTube no budget films, or Public Access Cable channel films, would you say you had a decent library? Hell to the NO! They aren't worth watching. They are only films due the media, but certainly not a film by the definition of entertainment. They are drivel. Almost all Kindle books are WORSE than that. They never should have been written, let alone read. They are pure crap. Don't get me wrong, the New York City “professional” presses are all SJW and unreadable as well.

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Digital books are almost never a good bet. I find it is best to just use them to search for new authors, and as cheaply as possible. You won't find much. Those “free for today” books I point out to you? 99% total crap. I'm not a snob. Some people who otherwise wouldn't read like the pulp fiction stuff ( before, “Survivalist” or “Executioner”. Now, zombies and Super Ninja Tactical Operators ). I just simply cannot stand them myself. It is lowest common denominator fiction. That means, lowest level of writing, NOT lowest intelligence of the reader. My problem is, that is the ONLY kind of books you find now, digital or hard copy.

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All hard copy is now James Patterson drivel or SJW propaganda. I don't know when that went off the rails, perhaps the 2008 crash on. As a result, ONLY used books prior to that change are worthy of purchase. And if you buy those in the digital marketplace, you pay high shipping costs. Unless your town has an actually used bookstore, reading is no longer cheap ( Borders, Barns & Noble and etcetera in my opinion went out of business because of the content they provided, just as movie theaters are wounded by the crap they are stuck with ).

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So, Amazon screws you on Kindle, with crappy books, or it certainly does NOT pass on the savings of no retail space and screws you with shipping ( to be fair, the used books suffer from a dwindling supply, also, if you don't buy newer used books. Seriously, check out how even science fiction went SJW. I still don't know how that is even possible ). Okay, this is long enough for one day. I'll continue and conclude this tomorrow.

( .Y. )

( today's related Amazon link click here )

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note: free books for today.  EMP here. 
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note: I've re-enrolled in Kindle Unlimited ( for how long is anyone's guess ).  When I get a great book, I'll post it in the notes.  Of course, it is understood that the book is judged somewhat on the price.  You'll see something like "today's KU pick".  Today, the author of Daily Impact dot net and his PA novel here. 
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