There is an old idea, that you need two drivers for a major change to occur ... like fiber optic cable became so prevalent because of the rising requirement for telecommunications bandwidth + a coincidental/consequential spike in the price of copper.
A lot has been happening over the last 20 years to give one pause as to whether Capitalism will be the engine of our society for the next 500 years, as it has for the last. A lot has also been written about the impact of robots to jobs, but for many of us, this seems distant.
Then you read an article like Self-Driving Cars Will Improve Our Cities. If They Don't Ruin Them. and you realize several things. 2020 is just around the corner, 7+ million is a lot of US jobs and that those jobs had traditionally been considered safer. Offshoring was the usual worry, but mitigated by taste, shipping or locality issues.
The dissatisfaction seen in the current US election, suggests the popular notion that the lobbyists and politicians have messed up Capitalism and that only a businessman can get us all back to prosperity. Rather I posit that the financial excess common at the end of any great expansion and our technical progress have wildly outrun our societal structures, that there is no usual remedy needing just a stern hand to apply. This will become apparent as an industry the size of transportation is soon revolutionized.
A lot has been happening over the last 20 years to give one pause as to whether Capitalism will be the engine of our society for the next 500 years, as it has for the last. A lot has also been written about the impact of robots to jobs, but for many of us, this seems distant.
Then you read an article like Self-Driving Cars Will Improve Our Cities. If They Don't Ruin Them. and you realize several things. 2020 is just around the corner, 7+ million is a lot of US jobs and that those jobs had traditionally been considered safer. Offshoring was the usual worry, but mitigated by taste, shipping or locality issues.
The dissatisfaction seen in the current US election, suggests the popular notion that the lobbyists and politicians have messed up Capitalism and that only a businessman can get us all back to prosperity. Rather I posit that the financial excess common at the end of any great expansion and our technical progress have wildly outrun our societal structures, that there is no usual remedy needing just a stern hand to apply. This will become apparent as an industry the size of transportation is soon revolutionized.
