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Tuesday, September 7, 2021

 SEPTEMBER 7, 2021
TUESDAY
 
PROGRESSIVE OPINION AND NEWS 

TO THOSE OF US WHO HAVE ACTUALLY BEEN LOLLYGAGGING AROUND ABOUT LOOKING FOR WORK, MAYBE THEY SHOULD GIVE UP AND TAKE A POVERTY LEVEL JOB NOW. BUT FOR THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN TRYING DESPERATELY TO FIND A JOB, THIS IS GOING TO BE A SEVERE BLOW. FOOD AND HOSPITALITY WORKERS OF ALL KINDS WILL HAVE HAD FEWER OPENINGS TO FILL WITHIN THE COVID ECONOMY, AND NOW THEIR RELIEF BENEFITS WILL STOP AS WELL. 

ISSUES LIKE HOW WE FEED AND HOUSE MASSES OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE, COINCIDENTALLY, ALSO BEEN FORCED FROM THEIR APARTMENTS AND HOUSES, IS IN OUR PREDICTABLE FUTURE IF WE AREN’T VERY LUCKY AS A NATION, AND THEY MAY BECOME A DAILY ITEM IN THE NEWS. EVENTUALLY THAT WILL MAKE IT TO THE BALLOT BOX AS WELL. MAYBE JOE MANCHIN AND MITCH MCCONNELL WILL MEET THE SAME FATE – THEY WILL LOSE. 

FOR A LITTLE HOMEWORK ON THIS SUBJECT GO TO GOOD OLD WIKIPEDIA’S ARTICLE ON “HOOVERVILLES.” I HAVE INCLUDED THAT BELOW -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hooverville.   

 https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/jobless-americans-will-have-few-options-as-benefits-expire/ar-AAOa1AB?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531  
Jobless Americans will have few options as benefits expire
By KEN SWEET, AP Business Writer 
18 hrs ago [SEPTEMBER 7, 2021] 

PHOTOGRAPH -- © Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images, A customer walks by a We're Hiring sign outside a Target store on June 03, 2021 in Sausalito, California. It's estimated that roughly 8.9 million Americans will lose all or some of their unemployment benefits. 

NEW YORK (AP) — Millions of jobless Americans lost their unemployment benefits on Monday, leaving only a handful of economic support programs for those who are still being hit financially by the year-and-a-half-old coronavirus pandemic. 

Two critical programs expired on Monday. One provided jobless aid to self-employed and gig workers and another provided benefits to those who have been unemployed more than six months. Further, the Biden administration's $300 weekly supplemental unemployment benefit also ran out on Monday. 

It's estimated that roughly 8.9 million Americans will lose all or some of these benefits. 

While the White House has encouraged states to keep paying the $300 weekly benefit by using money from the stimulus bills, no states have opted to do so. Many states even opted out of the federal program early after some businesses complained that they couldn’t find enough people to hire. The data have shown minimal economic benefits from cutting off aid early in those states. 

Economists Peter McCrory and Daniel Silver of JPMorgan found “zero correlation″ between job growth and state decisions to drop the federal unemployment aid, at least so far. An economist at Columbia University, Kyle Coombs, found only minimal benefits. 

The amount of money injected by the federal government into jobless benefits since the pandemic began is nothing short of astronomical. The roughly $650 billion, according to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, kept millions of Americans who lost their jobs through no fault of their own in their apartments, paying for food and gasoline, and keeping up with their bills. The banking industry has largely attributed the few defaults on loans this past 18 months to the government relief efforts. 

“The end of the pandemic unemployment benefits will be an abrupt jolt to millions of Americans who won’t find a job in time for this arbitrary end to assistance,” Andrew Stettner with the Century Foundation said in a report. 

Video: Unemployment benefits expire for over 7.5 million Americans (NBC News) 

Unemployment benefits expire for over 7.5 million Americans 

The ending of these programs comes as the U.S. economy has recovered from the pandemic, but with substantial gaps in the recovery. The Labor Department says there are still 5.7 million fewer jobs than before the pandemic. Yet the department also estimated, last month, that there were roughly 10 million job openings. 

These benefits are also ending sooner than during the previous crisis, the Great Recession. In that downturn, jobless benefits in various forms were extended from the start of the recession in 2008-2009 all the way until 2013. When those benefits finally ended, just 1.3 million people were still receiving aid. 

Americans still financially struggling in the pandemic will find a smaller patchwork of social support programs, both at the state level and through the federal government. 

The White House approved last month a 25% increase in food stamp assistance, also known as SNAP benefits. That increase will continue indefinitely for those 42.7 million Americans who receive those payments. 

While the federal eviction moratorium has expired, roughly a dozen states — all controlled by Democrats — have extended their moratoriums, including California, New York, Washington, Illinois and Minnesota. New York’s eviction moratorium was extended until Jan. 15. 

The Biden administration also pushed the restart of federal student loan repayments until January. Those were supposed to have restarted this month. 

Those unemployed less than six months will still be able to collect their benefits, but the amount will fall back to the level that each state pays. The average weekly check is roughly $387, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, but varies greatly state by state. 

But none of these programs will have the flexibility or direct impact as unemployment benefits being paid directly to jobless Americans, wrote JPMorgan economists McCrory and Silver. They say the loss of benefits could lead to job losses that potentially could offset any of the job gains made as the economy recovers. 

AP Economic Writers Chris Rugaber and Paul Wiseman contributed to this report from Washington. 

 

“HOOVERVILLES” AROUND THE NATION DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION WERE A PHENOMENON THAT MY FATHER MENTIONED TO ME. WE ARE ALREADY EXPERIENCING THE SAME THING NOW IN SOME PLACES. SEE THE ARTICLE BELOW. 
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hooverville  
Hooverville
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 

A "Hooverville" was a shanty town built during the Great Depression by the homeless in the United States. They were named after Herbert Hoover, who was President of the United States during the onset of the Depression and was widely blamed for it. The term was coined by Charles Michelson, publicity chief of the Democratic National Committee.[1] There were hundreds of Hoovervilles across the country during the 1930s and hundreds of thousands of people lived in these slums.[2] 

Background 

Homelessness was present before the Great Depression, and was a common sight before 1929. Most large cities built municipal lodging houses for the homeless, but the Depression exponentially increased demand. The homeless clustered in shanty towns close to free soup kitchens. These settlements were often trespassing on private lands, but they were frequently tolerated or ignored out of necessity. The New Deal enacted special relief programs aimed at the homeless under the Federal Transient Service (FTS), which operated from 1933 to 1935.[3] 

Some of the men who were forced to live in these conditions possessed construction skills, and were able to build their houses out of stone. Most people, however, resorted to building their residences out of wood from crates, cardboard, scraps of metal, or whatever materials were available to them. They usually had a small stove, bedding and a couple of simple cooking implements.[4] Men, women and children alike lived in Hoovervilles.[5] Most of these unemployed residents of the Hoovervilles relied on public charities or begged for food from those who had housing during this era. 

Democrats coined many terms based on opinions of Herbert Hoover[6] such as "Hoover blanket" (old newspaper used as blanketing). A "Hoover flag" was an empty pocket turned inside out and "Hoover leather" was cardboard used to line a shoe when the sole wore through. A "Hoover wagon" was an automobile with horses hitched to it, often with the engine removed.[7] 

After 1940 the economy recovered, unemployment fell, and shanty housing eradication programs destroyed all the Hoovervilles.[8] 

Notable Hoovervilles 

PHOTOGRAPH -- Police with batons confront demonstrators armed with bricks and clubs. A policeman and a demonstrator wrestle over a US flag. Bonus Army marchers confront the police. 

Among the hundreds of Hoovervilles across the U.S. during the 1930s were those in: 

Anacostia in the District of Columbia: The Bonus Army, a group of World War I veterans seeking expedited benefits, established a Hooverville in 1932. Many of these men came from afar, illegally by riding on railroad freight trains to join the movement.[9] At its maximum there were 15,000 people living there.[10] The camp was demolished by units of the U.S. Army, commanded by Gen. Douglas MacArthur. 

Central Park, New York City: Scores of homeless families camped out at the Great Lawn at Central Park, then an empty reservoir.[11] 

Riverside Park, New York City: A shantytown occupied Riverside Park at 72nd Street during the depression.[12] 

Seattle had eight Hoovervilles during the 1930s.[13] Its largest Hooverville on the tidal flats adjacent to the Port of Seattle lasted from 1932 to 1941.[14] 

St. Louis in 1930 had the largest Hooverville in America. It consisted of four distinct sectors. St. Louis's racially integrated Hooverville depended upon private philanthropy, had an unofficial mayor, created its own churches and other social institutions, and remained a viable community until 1936, when the federal Works Progress Administration allocated slum clearance funds for the area.[15]

. . . .   

See also

*Potemkin village --  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potemkin_village  

In politics and economics, a Potemkin village is any construction (literal or figurative) whose sole purpose is to provide an external façade to a country which is faring poorly, making people believe that the country is faring better. The term comes from stories of a fake portable village built solely to impress Empress Catherine II by her former lover Grigory Potemkin, during her journey to Crimea in 1787.   . . . .   

Reaganville --  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clark_v._Community_for_Creative_Non-Violence  

Clark v. Community for Creative Non-Violence, 468 U.S. 288 (1982), is a United States Supreme Court case with the National Park Service's regulation which specifically prohibited sleeping in Lafayette Park and the National Mall at issue.[1] The Community for Creative Non-Violence (CCNV)[2] group had planned to hold a demonstration on the National Mall and Lafayette Park where they would erect tent cities to raise awareness of the situation of the homeless. The group obtained the correct permits for a seven-day demonstration starting on the first day of winter. The Park Service however denied the request that participants be able to sleep in the tents. The CCNV challenged this regulation on the basis that it violated their First Amendment right.[1] 

Background 

The Community for Creative Non-Violence is a group based in Washington D.C. with a mission "to ensure that the rights of the homeless and poor are not infringed upon and that every person has access to life's basic essentials -- food, shelter, clothing and medical care".[2]   . . . .   

Opinion of the Court 

The Supreme Court issued its decision on June 29, 1984 and in a 7-2 majority vote in favor of the National Park Service, it held that the regulations did not violate the First Amendment. The Court stressed that expression is subject to reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions, also that the means of the protest went against the government's interest in maintaining the condition of the national parks. The Court felt that the protest was not being threatened altogether and that it could take place in a park where sleeping was permitted. In essence because the demonstrators could find alternative ways of voicing their message their First Amendment right was safe. The regulation in question is also considered to be content neutral meaning the regulation did not have a bias against a particular message.[15]    . . . .   

 

THERE IS A NEED FOR ALL OF THE NATIONS INVOLVED IN THIS INTERNATIONAL MESS, ESPECIALLY THOSE IN CENTRAL AMERICA, TO FIND AND IMPLEMENT CONCRETE PLANS, FIRST, TO MAKE LIFE WITHIN THEIR OWN BORDERS MUCH MORE LIVABLE FOR THE WHOLE POPULATION AND, SECOND, TO ENFORCE BORDER SECURITY WITHIN THEIR OWN COUNTRIES. THEN, OF COURSE, THERE ARE THE “COYOTES.” 

THE HUMAN SMUGGLERS, THE “COYOTES,” DESERVE TEN YEARS AT LEAST OF PRISON TIME FOR THEIR CRIME, BUT THE ACTUAL PENALTIES VARY. SOMETIMES THE SMUGGLER WILL BE A FRIEND OR FAMILY MEMBER, FOR INSTANCE, AND SOMETIMES IT IS A PROFESSIONAL SMUGGLER AND PEOPLE MAY DIE AS A RESULT OF THEIR JOURNEY. THOSE PENALTIES CAN BE SEVERE, AS THEY SHOULD BE. STILL, I HAVEN’T SEEN MANY NEWS ARTICLES ON THE ARREST AND TRIAL OF A HUMAN SMUGGLER. ARE THEY OFTEN CAUGHT AND CONVICTED? FOR MORE ON THAT, SEE:  https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/smuggling-noncitizens-into-the-us-possible-legal-consequences.html   

MEXICO SHOULDN’T BE LEFT WITH THE WHOLE RESPONSIBILITY OF CONTAINING THE SITUATION. YET, THEY COULD SURELY HELP TO CONVINCE THE OTHERS TO COOPERATE, OR AT LEAST MAKE AN ATTEMPT TO DO SO. DO THEY HAVE ANY INFLUENCE OVER THEM? THE NYT ARTICLE BELOW DOES CONTAIN REFERENCES TO TALKS CURRENTLY UNDERWAY BETWEEN THE US AND MEXICAN GOVERNMENTS TO COME TO AN AGREEMENT ON HOW TO MANAGE THE FLOW OF PEOPLE FROM THE SOUTH. 

WHY HAS THAT BEEN SO DIFFICULT TO PURSUE AS A CLEAR GOAL IN THE PAST? COOPERATION BETWEEN ALL NATIONS INVOLVED MAKES SUCH GOOD SENSE. THERE IS EVEN AN ORGANIZATION OF LONG STANDING TO FACILITATE SUCH DISCUSSIONS, THE ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES. SEE:  http://www.oas.org/en/about/who_we_are.asp.
 
 https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/06/world/americas/mexico-migrants-asylum-border.html  
As Migrants Surge Toward Border, Court Hands Biden a Lifeline
Desperate to control the unrelenting buildup on the border, Biden administration officials turn their focus to deterring migration, dashing hopes of asylum seekers.
By Natalie KitroeffPhotographs by Daniele Volpe
Published Sept. 6, 2021
Updated Sept. 7, 2021, 4:04 p.m. ET 

PHOTOGRAPH -- Migrants, mostly from Central America and Haiti, waiting on the International Bridge last month in Matamoros, Mexico, to enter the United States to request asylum. 

MATAMOROS, Mexico — When the Supreme Court effectively revived a cornerstone of Trump-era migration policy late last month, it looked like a major defeat for President Biden. 

After all, Mr. Biden had condemned the policy — which requires asylum seekers to wait in Mexico — as “inhumane” and suspended it on his first day in office, part of an aggressive push to dismantle former President Donald J. Trump’s harshest migration policies. 

But among some Biden officials, the Supreme Court’s order was quietly greeted with something other than dismay, current and former officials said: It brought some measure of relief. 

Before that ruling, Mr. Biden’s steps to begin loosening the reins on migration had been quickly followed by a surge of people heading north, overwhelming the southwest border of the United States. Apprehensions of migrants hit a two-decade high in July, a trend officials fear will continue into the fall. 

Concern had already been building inside the Biden administration that the speed of its immigration changes may have encouraged migrants to stream toward the United States, current and former officials said. 

In fact, some Biden officials were already talking about reviving Mr. Trump’s policy in a limited way to deter migration, said the officials, who have worked on immigration policy but were not authorized to speak publicly about the administration’s internal debates on the issue. Then the Supreme Court order came, providing the Biden administration with the political cover to adopt the policy in some form without provoking as much ire from Democrats who reviled Mr. Trump’s border policies. 

Now, the officials say, they have an opportunity to take a step back, come up with a more humane version of Mr. Trump’s policy and, they hope, reduce the enormous number of people arriving at the border. 

PHOTOGRAPH -- Brownsville, Tex., from Matamoros, Mexico, to seek asylum. Border Patrol agents checking the documents of migrants trying to cross into Brownsville, Tex., from Matamoros, Mexico, to seek asylum. 

“This desire to reverse Trump’s policies and to do so quickly has landed the Biden administration in this predicament, which was not unpredictable and is very sad to watch,” said Alan Bersin, who served as commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection under President Barack Obama. 

The policy at the center of the case — commonly known as Remain in Mexico — quickly became one of the most contentious elements of Mr. Trump’s immigration agenda because it upended central provisions of the nation’s asylum system. Instead of allowing migrants to enter the United States while the courts assessed their claims, it made thousands of asylum seekers wait in squalid encampments in Mexico rife with reports of kidnappings, extortion and other serious abuses. 

After Mr. Biden suspended the policy, Texas and Missouri sued the administration, arguing that the influx of people “imposed severe and ongoing burdens” on the states. The Supreme Court refused to block a lower court’s ruling that required the restoration of the program, forcing the Biden administration to comply with it while the appeals process unfolds. 

PHOTOGRAPH -- Migrants sheltering at a church in Matamoros. 

But the ambivalence within corners of the Biden administration reflects a broader worry: that the border crisis could have electoral repercussions for the Democrats, potentially dooming hopes of pushing through a more significant overhaul of the nation’s migration and asylum systems. 

“They are backed into a corner on their broader immigration agenda,” Doris Meissner, the commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service from 1993 to 2000, said of the Biden administration. “The only tools that are available in the near term are pretty much pure enforcement.” 

After coming to office, Mr. Biden not only allowed migrants to apply for asylum in the United States, but he also refused to immediately expel unaccompanied children and moved to freeze deportations. 

As migrants surged to the border, Republicans attacked the new administration on multiple fronts, forcing the president to retreat from key campaign promises and angering some in his base. 

PHOTOGRAPH  -- Migrants lining up for health services in Matamoros. 

Mr. Biden has, in turn, leaned on Mexico and Central America to step up their own border enforcement. But the efforts have not meaningfully curbed the flows north, and they have led to violent attacks on migrants by law enforcement in those countries. 

While the administration tried to change the welcoming tone it set early on, dispatching Vice President Kamala Harris to Guatemala to proclaim the border closed in June, migrants and smugglers say the encouraging signals sent at the outset of Mr. Biden’s term are all anyone remembers. 

“‘We heard the news that the U.S. opened the borders,’” said Abraham Barberi, a pastor in the border city of Matamoros, recounting what migrants routinely tell him. So many came to town that Mr. Barberi turned his church into a migrant shelter soon after Mr. Biden came to office, as mothers and their toddlers started showing up at his door. 

PHOTOGRAPH -- Abraham Barberi, a pastor, with migrants outside his church in Matamoros, which has become a shelter for migrants. 

“The Biden administration said, ‘We’re going to let people in,’” Mr. Barberi said, zigzagging between the thin mattresses that now cover the church floors. “That’s when everyone flooded.” 

Thousands of asylum seekers were gradually let into the United States after Mr. Biden ended the Trump policy of forcing them to wait in Mexico, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, which tracks migration data. But almost immediately, Mr. Barberi said, a gusher of new migrants showed up. 

So Mr. Barberi crammed dozens of bunk beds into Bible school classrooms and filled shelves with diapers, baby formula and medicine. If the Remain in Mexico policy does return, Mr. Barberi said, “we’re going to have a lot of people stuck here.” 

PHOTOGRAPH -- Migrants at Mr. Barberi’s church in Matamoros. 

Among them is Marilin Lopéz, who fled Honduras with her son in 2019 after facing constant death threats. When she got to Mexico, she said, a trafficker handed her to armed men who held her hostage for months. After coming up with the ransom and finally making it to the border, she said, she ran into two of her kidnappers in Matamoros and went into hiding, leaving her unable to show up for some of her asylum appointments. 

Under Mr. Trump, the United States granted asylum to less than 2 percent of all applicants under the Remain in Mexico policy, according to the Syracuse University clearinghouse. Most of the people who were denied asylum missed court dates, like Ms. Lopéz, who was too terrified to walk around in Matamoros, a city the State Department warns Americans against visiting because of “crime and kidnapping.” 

In late August, after the Biden administration said it would reopen some of those cases, Ms. Lopéz applied to make her claim for protection one more time. 

Days later, Ms. Lopéz received a text message from United Nations representatives assisting her petition: All cases were on pause while they awaited clarity after the Supreme Court decision. 

“They killed all our hope,” Ms. Lopéz said. “The Biden government promised many things, and now we feel tricked.” 

It is not yet clear exactly how the Biden administration will respond to the Supreme Court’s ruling, though officials in the United States and in Mexico say discussions about implementing a new version of Remain in Mexico have already begun. 

PHOTOGRAPH -- The dining room in Mr. Barberi’s church. 

Roberto Velasco, the Mexican Foreign Ministry’s chief officer for North America, said in a statement that the Supreme Court would not dictate Mexico’s migration policy, “which is determined and executed with sovereignty.” 

Mexico recently proposed forming a working group with the United States, Mr. Velasco said, “to manage the extraordinary flows that both countries are seeing.” He said Mexico would oppose any move to reopen encampments along the border — a move that would be politically challenging in the United States as well. When Dr. Jill Biden toured the Matamoros camp in 2019, she described it as heartbreaking. 

“I’ve witnessed the pain of refugees around the world, but seeing it at our own border felt like a betrayal,” Dr. Biden said in a Twitter post after the visit, adding, “This cruelty is not who we are.” 

A version of this article appears in print on Sept. 7, 2021, Section A, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Court Hands Biden Relief From a Migrant Surge. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe 

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MY, HOW TIME DOES FLY! 
 https://www.cbsnews.com/news/these-everyday-things-didnt-exist-before-911-now-trillion-dollar-industries/
These everyday things didn't exist before 9/11. Now they're trillion-dollar industries.
BY RACHEL LAYNE, DAN PATTERSON
SEPTEMBER 7, 2021 / 12:06 PM / MONEYWATCH 

From the internet cloud and your smartphone to the TSA, daily life in the U.S. has changed dramatically since that awful September day in 2001. 

Take air travel. Before 9/11, security at airports was mostly privately run, and may have included walking through a metal detector. Passengers could take baseball bats and blades up to 4 inches on the plane; family members could go through security to the gate to say goodbye; identification wasn't always required and nobody took off their shoes. Passengers typically needed to arrive 30 minutes before their flight. 

Remembering 9/11 

Nobody had a smartphone, social media didn't exist, biometrics were in their infancy, Alexa may have been someone's nickname and "the cloud" was a weather term. Tracking someone by satellite via street cameras or GPS on their phone still seemed like science fiction. 

Here are some of the biggest changes — and their price tags — two decades later. 

Homeland and Transportation Security 

The Transportation Security Administration was created under a law enacted in November 2001. 

TSA employs more than 50,000 security employees and screens more than 2 million passengers daily (or roughly 750 million a year.) The TSA budget hit more than $8.4 billion in 2021. 

The TSA's PreCheck program is now used in 200 airports and by 80 airlines across the country. Passengers who sign up with TSA for a security check can skip some commonplace measures, like taking off your shoes. But it also requires you to submit detailed personal information for a background check, raising some privacy concerns. 

The TSA collects a passenger fee for each ticket sold by commercial airlines, commonly called the "9/11 fee." According to the TSA website, in 2019, those fees totaled $4.3 billion (they fell to $2.5 billion in 2020, the first year of the global pandemic, as fewer people traveled.) 

Biometrics use on the rise 

Biometrics, such as fingerprints and even facial recognition software, are also much more widely used. And it's all digital. While airline passengers aren't required to use it, the TSA and Customs and Border Protection see potential for more efficient passenger screening. 

Customs and Border Patrol is testing facial recognition at Wayne County Airport in Detroit. 

Some privacy advocates have concerns with data collection and the government's use of private contractors to assist it as biometrics become more pervasive. 

Surveillance "gold rush" 

"It's been a surveillance gold rush over the last two decades — a lot of companies have entered the space, a lot of companies have expanded into the space, simply through the amount of money thrown at it by state and federal governments," said Albert Fox Cahn, founder of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project and a critic of data collection. 

The tech industry's embrace of big data "is a direct response to public funding," he said. 

For almost two decades the IT industry has been one of the fastest growing sectors in the U.S. And, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, computer science jobs are expected to grow 11% over the next decade. 

The cloud and the smartphone 

Two major technological innovations had a major impact on the economy, politics and everyday life for Americans in the years following 9/11: smartphones and the cloud. 

The cloud is digital infrastructure that supports web technology, social networks, business tools and apps. Smartphones are essentially miniature supercomputers that work with the cloud and serve as Swiss Army Knife-like tools, TechRepublic editor-in-chief Bill Detwiler said. And devices become more powerful every year, in large part because of apps and cloud computing capabilities. 

"No single digital device has had a more profound effect on the past twenty years than the smartphone," Detwiler said. "These devices help us work, learn, shop, ensure we don't get lost, track our health, warn us during emergencies and of course help us communicate." 

In 2001 there were fewer than 500 million people connected to the internet. Today, nearly 7.1 billion people are online largely because of smartphones.  

The most popular phone in 2001 was the Nokia 8250, a candy bar-shaped device that ably managed calls, texting and little else. The company, which was a massive mobile handset maker at the time, sold about 140 million total units that year. 

In contrast, Apple sold 57 million iPhones in the first quarter of 2021 alone. Analysts forecast the Apple's market cap could soon top $3 trillion, a valuation propelled by the success of the iPhone and other mobile devices. 

The modern cloud is ubiquitous and enormously powerful, Detwiler said. Cloud computing means software and services that run on a network of dedicated servers. The term was first referenced in 1996 in a business plan by Compaq, but it didn't find a market until 2006, when Amazon launched Cloud Compute, a service that let developers offload computing to the company's servers and software. 

More tech innovations 

Today, the mobile processor industry is valued at almost $10 billion and modern chips are so powerful, they can power laptops and crunch big AI algorithms. In the future, mobile processors will be baked into a wide variety of sensors and so-called Internet of Things devices. 

Contemporary artificial intelligence and machine learning are automation technologies that unlock our phones, help us with navigation, and help business operate more efficiently. These technologies are powerful and useful because of the cloud and big data produced by mobile devices. 

In 2001 Microsoft released MSN Messenger and Friendster was in its infancy. Today, Facebook has 2.8 billion users and is valued at more than $1 trillion. The tech giant and other social media apps rely on the cloud and mobile devices for the data that make their algorithms and ad targeting systems so effective. 

CBS News' Irina Ivanova contributed reporting. 

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First published on September 7, 2021 / 12:06 PM
 
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