The CEO of Amazon made the recent announcement that they are working on a new delivery system that can deliver purchases within a half hour by the use of drones. That's right, drones.

The address of a purchaser will be entered into a GPS system and the drone will maneuver by autopilot right to a home. Now I don't know how the drone will know where to drop a package, the front door, the back door on whether it might land on a roof, but it will get there within a half hour an order being placed if a person lives in close proximity to one of Amazon's distribution centers. Isn't that terrific? (This is when a sarcasm font on my printer would come in handy.)

Now this does raise some interesting questions.

First of all I assume they would have to get permission from the Federal Aviation Administration and other regulating offices to allow this inundation of air space. Will it interfere with commercial airlines? Is there any chance they will run into high-rise buildings or communication towers? How high will they have to fly? Does anyone really need their merchandise in 30 minutes?

In answer to this last question, why not simply go down to the local shopping mall and pick up whatever is needed? Can you imagine how many of these drones would be flying overhead at any given moment? It would look like a scene from Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" I can see the schoolchildren running down the street, pursued by a flock of out of control drones. I can picture a drone crashing into a phone booth while Tippi Hedren is inside.

Oh, I forgot, there are no phone booths anymore. Scratch that scene. Can you imagine our airline pilots trying to pick their way through a formation of drones during peak shopping hours? What about the Department of Defense drones getting mixed up with the Amazon drones? You stand in your front yard expecting a present to be delivered, and instead you receive a 4,000-pound bomb which levels your house, and the surrounding neighborhood. There are technological glitches you know.

It does open up an entire new industry. Employment rates would soar just for the manufacturing of new drones - probably in China. A new class of technicians would be required to repair these drones. And the insurance industry would reach new heights. Imagine a person walking down the street, minding their own business and one of these babies comes in a little lower than planned and clocks them right in the back of the head! There are bound to be big-time injuries, all drone-related. How about if one crashed into a vehicle windshield like a giant moth, causing a multi-car accident? The lawyers and accountants would also benefit. See, there's a bright side to everything!

Now it is not time to panic, I'm sure it will take some time before the kinks are straightened out and the drones are ready for service. And it could be just another flash in the pan. Remember the Segway? But it is certainly good news for the American consumer. How wonderful that someone keeps thinking up new and faster ways to separate consumers from their money. Is this a great country or what?

Now, I must admit, this will have virtually no effect on me or my shopping habits, as I have never used Amazon and have no plans to use it in the future. If I can't find it between Sears, Walmart and Home Depot, I don't need it. When I was a kid the only Amazons we knew about were those giant women in revealing costumes that Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers would run into during the Saturday matinees at the Capitol Theater

TOM PERKINS IS A RETIRED ADVERTISING EXECUTIVE WHO LIVES IN WATERFORD. EMAIL HIM AT TNGPERK@SBCGLOBAL.NET.