Not sure if it is the right thread but it makes for interesting reading.
1. The Post Office
Get ready to imagine a world without the post office. They are so deeply in
financial trouble that there is probably no way to sustain it long term. Email,
Fed Ex, and UPS have just about wiped out the minimum revenue needed to keep the
post office alive. Most of your mail every day is junk mail and bills.
2. The Cheque
Britain is already laying the groundwork to do away with cheque by 2018. It costs
the financial system billions of dollars a year to process cheques. Plastic
cards and online transactions will lead to the eventual demise of the
cheque. This plays right into the death of the post office. If you
never paid your bills by mail and never received them by mail, the post office
would absolutely go out of business.
3. The Newspaper
The younger generation simply doesn't read the newspaper. They certainly don't
subscribe to a daily delivered print edition. That may go the way of the
milkman and the laundry man. As for reading the paper online, get ready to
pay for it. The rise in mobile Internet devices and e-readers has caused
all the newspaper and magazine publishers to form an alliance. They have
met with Apple, Amazon, and the major cell phone companies to develop a model
for paid subscription services.
4. The Book
You say you will never give up the physical book that you hold in your hand and turn
the literal pages I said the same thing about downloading music from
iTunes. I wanted my hard copy CD. But I quickly changed my mind when
I discovered that I could get albums for half the price without ever leaving
home to get the latest music. The same thing will happen with books.
You can browse a bookstore online and even read a preview chapter before you
buy. And the price is less than half that of a real book. And think
of the convenience! Once you start flicking your fingers on the screen
instead of the book, you find that you are lost in the story, can't wait to see
what happens next, and you forget that you're holding a gadget instead of a
book.
5. The Land Line Telephone
Unless you have a large family and make a lot of local calls, you don't need it
anymore. Most people keep it simply because they've always had it.
But you are paying double charges for that extra service. All the cell
phone companies will let you call customers using the same cell provider for no
charge against your minutes.
6. Music
This is one of the saddest parts of the change story. The music industry is
dying a slow death. Not just because of illegal downloading. It's
the lack of innovative new music being given a chance to get to the people who
would like to hear it. Greed and corruption is the problem. The
record labels and the radio conglomerates are simply self-destructing.
Over 40% of the music purchased today is "catalogue items," meaning traditional
music that the public is familiar with. Older established artists.
This is also true on the live concert circuit. To explore this fascinating
and disturbing topic further, check out the book, "Appetite for
Self-Destruction" by Steve Knopper, and the video documentary, "Before the Music Dies."
7. Television Revenues
To the networks are down dramatically. Not just because of the economy.
People are watching TV and movies streamed from their computers. And
they're playing games and doing lots of other things that take up the time that
used to be spent watching TV. Prime time shows have degenerated down to
lower than the lowest common denominator. Cable rates are skyrocketing and
commercials run about every 4 minutes and 30 seconds. I say good riddance
to most of it. It's time for the cable companies to be put out of our
misery. Let the people choose what they want to watch online and through Netflix.
8. The "Things" That You Own
Many of the very possessions that we used to own are still in our lives, but we may
not actually own them in the future. They may simply reside in "the
cloud." Today your computer has a hard drive and you store your pictures,
music, movies, and documents. Your software is on a CD or DVD, and you can
always re-install it if need be. But all of that is changing. Apple,
Microsoft, and Google are all finishing up their latest "cloud services."
That means that when you turn on a computer, the Internet will be built into the
operating system. So, Windows, Google, and the Mac OS will be tied
straight into the Internet. If you click an icon, it will open something
in the Internet cloud. If you save something, it will be saved to the
cloud. And you may pay a monthly subscription fee to the cloud
provider. In this virtual world, you can access your music or your books,
or your whatever from any laptop or handheld device. That's the good
news. But, will you actually own any of this "stuff" or will it all be
able to disappear at any moment in a big "Poof?" Will most of the things
in our lives be disposable and whimsical? It makes you want to run to the
closet and pull out that photo album, grab a book from the shelf, or open up a
CD case and pull out the insert.
9. Joined Handwriting (Cursive Writing)
Already gone in some schools who no longer teach "joined handwriting" because nearly
everything is done now on computers or keyboards of some type (pun not intended)
10. Privacy
If there ever was a concept that we can look back on nostalgically, it would be
privacy. That's gone. It's been gone for a long time anyway..
There are cameras on the street, in most of the buildings, and even built into
your computer and cell phone. But you can be sure that 24/7, "They" know
who you are and where you are, right down to the GPS coordinates, and the Google
Street View. If you buy something, your habit is put into a zillion
profiles, and your ads will change to reflect those habits.. "They" will
try to get you to buy something else. Again and again and again.
All we will have left that which can't be changed.......are our "Memories".
Logic is dead.
Excellence is punished.
Mediocrity is rewarded.
and
Dependency is to be revered.
When people rob banks they go to prison.
When they rob the taxpayer they get re-elected