Satellite Phones, Brain Drain, & Numbers That Matter

#1 Why The Race For Satellite Connected Phones Matters

A New Space Race Targets the Smartphone - WSJ (archive.ph)

Connecting smartphones to satellite-based internet will bring the rest of the world online regardless of local infrastructure. This means that the internet will be accessible by a greater number of people. Internet access that cannot be easily taken away by hostile governments. (As an example, Starlink has proven to be a major asset for Ukrainians surviving Russian attacks because it's hard to shut down).

Having options are what create negotiating leverage and having global, digital options help individuals achieve the tech-enabled exit. ie: remote workers can relocate anywhere that has internet access. 

In a world with widely available satellite internet, if you don't like the place you live in today; you can more easily move somewhere else without disrupting your income. And on a large enough scale, that will force governments to reevaluate policy choices.

"The decades-old satellite industry is setting its sights on a target that until lately looked unreachable: the everyday smartphone."

To be clear, the tech is still a few years off from providing a quality mobile experience.

But "The potential rewards from reaching even a sliver of the world’s more than six billion smartphones are likewise rich, assuming that companies are able to make their services work on a global scale. "

"New Street Research estimated that a truly “seamless” satellite-to-phone service with voice and data would be worth as much as $20 billion a year in the U.S. and many times that around the world. 

The important takeaway: the technology is becoming available to make satellite internet a reality. There are now massive monetary incentives for companies to pursue satellite phone infrastructure. That's caused massive investments to flow into the industry. And as more companies compete in this opportunity, the better off the individual consumer will be. 

We're not too far away from a time where the entire planet will be able to connect to the internet.

#2 Brain Drain In Hong Kong & The Lessons The World Can Learn

Brain drain solution is staring Hong Kong in face | Reuters 

This short article raises critical points about how governments are forced to combat the realities of brain drain in a world of remote work. A world where remote workers are increasingly likely to relocate when faced with bad policies.

For example: Hong Kong's prolonged Covid policies are viewed by many to be excessive. And as a result of these policies, the Hong Kong government is now forced to deal with the fact that remote workers are leaving.

"The city's labour force is shrinking, with the 20- to 24-year-old cohort plunging an alarming 15% in the second quarter from a year earlier."

The government now has a choice to make - adapt policies or watch the highly educated population leave. It's caused officials to look for new ways of attracting workers to come back.

"Leader John Lee hopes lower property taxes and a new visa scheme will persuade foreign talent not to move to destinations like Singapore. But it's piecemeal stuff and ignores what's easily the biggest cause of foreigners fleeing: the city's increasingly nonsensical Covid policy."

The takeaway: Hong Kong is a great example of how governments with large populations of remote workers are forced to adapt policies that this population favors. If they fail to do so, it caused a tech-enabled exodus. This is a developing story worth watching because many other governments will go through similar experiences.

This is another example of The Sovereign Individual thesis playing out in real time. ie: Digital Citizens will become more like customers/subscribers of the state and the state will adopt features to attract customers.

#3 Some Numbers That Matter

If you spend enough time studying the digital transformation, you'll eventually come across "numbers that matter". Specific areas of society that provide measurable proof that transformation is happening. These "numbers" are the leading and lagging indicators of societal change and are a baseline for understanding where the world is heading.

If you're able to track meaningful change with these numbers, you'll have a better chance of investing and positioning yourself for future trends well before the mainstream becomes aware of them.

Here are some examples.

Rapid Fire

• American's Are Using Their Ancestry To Gain Citizenship in Europe - One of the easiest ways to get 2nd citizenship is by ancestry. Pay attention, this is a mainstream publication talking about Flag Theory. The Sovereign Individual thesis is playing out in real time.

• Chinese physicists simulate nuclear blast against satellites | South China Morning Post (scmp.com) - How to you combat the success of satellite internet on the battlefield? China's trying to figure that out. This is an important contrast to the Utopian idea of internet for all.

• College Enrollments Decline For Third Straight Year - "Between the fall of 2020 and 2022, undergraduate college enrollment has declined by 4.2%."

• The Dark Side of Hooks: How They're Used to Manipulate You | The Sovereign Individual Weekly - How human psychology is used to manipulate you.

• Cities push to convert deserted office buildings into housing (axios.com)- Remote work means a drop in office occupancy. Cities are adapting by attempting to repurpose those buildings. The problem is that zoning laws and cost stand in the way. Expect prolonged pain for cities until they figure out what to do next.

• Inside Latin America’s booming crypto testing ground | Fortune - "While critics often describe crypto as a solution in search of a problem, boosters point to Latin America as a fertile testing ground—a region teeming with volatile currencies, inbound remittances, and knots of payment restrictions. As financial incumbents move into the region, Latin America may yet provide the answer to whether cryptocurrency can achieve mainstream traction."

• Delaying big purchases, reducing debt: How to prepare for a recession (cnbc.com) - "76% of adults are making lifestyle changes to prepare for a potential recession". This is what you call demand destruction and its exactly what the Fed wants to lower inflation.

Extras

Red tape will be the death of stagnating cities.