At the end of the last century, Robert Kiyosaki, author of the Rich Dad Poor Dad book series and cash-flow games, declared that the Age of Manufacturing is dead; we are now in the Age of Information. Recently he was interviewed in a video, “Industrial Age vs. Information Age” posted on the Web.
Looking at the emphasis in the media about job creation in the manufacturing sector, you’d never know it was the Age of Information. And looking at the US government, you’d never even dream it was the Age of Information.
If you were asked if the we have a Bureau of Information in the US, you’d probably think about it and say, well, isn’t that what Homeland Security is about? Its budget has risen dramatically since its inception ten years ago. But this secret data collection on behalf of our national security is not the kind of information I’m talking about.
There are other kinds of information that are desperately needed by both the government and the public. Government and public Information is not a luxury. We need other databases for issues that are just as important to our economic welfare and survival as those national security databases we spend so much money on.
