RICHES WAIT!

Something profound occurs to me once every ten years. And sometimes it's in disguise.

Think about this: Things that used to be expensive are becoming cheaper. Things that used to be very cheap are becoming expensive.

What's that mean? More importantly, where does it LEAD?

Okay - here are the examples that flashed through my mind: RAM. Good old computer memory... when I bought my first Megabyte in 1985 it cost me over $800 for my Apple 2C. Or IIC - I don't remember that, just that the Z-RAM ULTRA UPGRADE was that much.

Now you can get a Gig or two for, what? $20? (After rebates, no doubt.) Price went down as supply went up. Tech got better at making chips too.

Yet WATER has become very expensive. Not uncommon to pay $1 for 16 ounces or so. I've been in hotels (LA) where it was close to $5 for a quart! A stable supply (unless you count the melting icecaps.)

So I'm trying to figure out - what's going down, what's going UP - in the future? There's money to be made. My best guess so far: AIR is going to go up. You don't think so? Maybe ionized, oxygen rich, scented AIR will sell big in, oh, say, industrialized cities. The only problem is how it supports combustion, but there must be a packaging solution.

What's going UP? Gas-o-line. A bird farts and the price rises. Some fool leaves a valve open and a refinery launches itself. And the price rises. Somebody invents a car that runs on water, and the price of gas rises. I admit that I - mister V8 lust - have started to eye the hybrids.