I received an E mail from my old friends, Mike & Emma Cobb that aroused me to post this article. All of the facts quoted were from the message and I have paraphrased and added some commentary to better describe the speed and impacts of these major changes we face “NOW”. I am not prepared for this, are you?
I have watched the invention of so many new changes in my 84+ years it makes my mind swirl to even think of what is upon us today. I have seen the telephone revolution from crank phones and live operators to ones today with more options than the first IBM computer. My first “bag phone weighed over 5 pounds. I communicated with customers in the early 1990’s by cable grams. In Asia at that time I could not even reach my wife by telephone except in large cities like Singapore and Tokyo. Get ready folks we have some real adjustments headed our way at warp speed.
Get ready to imagine a world without a Post Office. They are in financial trouble that even Congress will have no way to sustain its operation much longer. Email, Fed Ex, and UPS have just about wiped out the revenue required to just keep the post office alive. Most of your mail today is catalogs you don’t use, charities begging for donations usual junk mail and bills.
I read that Britain is already laying the groundwork to do away with checks by 2018. It costs the financial system billions of dollars each year to process checks. Credit and debit cards coupled with online transactions will be the only way to pay your bills unless you go in person. We already pay some bills by having the seller debit your bank account. I still get my SS check by mail but the same government that supports the Post Office is demanding I accept a direct deposit in my bank. If we can’t get bills or pay bills by check the Post Office can’t survive with Valentine, birthday and Christmas cards to even pay its retired employees. Walmart could make a profit running the postal service and they have the stores in place.
Next is the Newspaper. The younger generation simply doesn’t read the newspaper. They certainly don’t subscribe to a daily delivered print edition. I get a request to subscribe to the internet versions of the Austin newspaper today by E mail. Printed newspapers will disappear like the iceman, milkman and laundryman that were in business when I was a boy. I read that the newspapers are meeting Apple, Amazon, and the major cell phone companies to develop a model for paid subscription services.
Some will never give up the physical book that you hold in your hand and turn the literal pages. Some people can’t handle any change. Now you can download books, movies, live TV and music at a fraction of the cost of a book, DVD or an album. Times have changed the market and reduced the costs. As an example you can now download music from iTunes and just by the one song you really wanted instead of the entire album.
Land line telephones are already an unnecessary expense unless you have a large family, make a lot of local calls or have a Fax machine. Most people, like me, just keep it simply because I have always had one. If you still have a land line you are paying double charges for that extra service. All of the cell phone companies will let you call other customers using the same cell provider for no charge against your minutes.*
Television revenues are down dramatically. Not just because of the economy. People are watching TV and movies streamed from their computers. They also play games, visit Facebook, Twitter, etc,cable get the news from blogs and lots of other activities that consume the time that they used spend watching TV. Cable and satellite rates are increasing and we now have to endure an increased volume of commercials about every 4 minutes.
Another thing that older Americans were made to learn was cursive handwriting. Many schools no longer even teach “joined handwriting” because nearly everything is done now on computers or keyboards of some type.
Privacy was a right all American enjoyed that is now a thing of the past. It’s gone. In fact it’s been gone for a long time. Now we have cameras on the street, in most of the buildings and even built into your computer and cell phone. The government, and God only know how many others know who you are and where you are, right down to the GPS coordinates and the Google Street View.
If you buy something, your buying habits are known by anyone who desires to buy them. Living in a rural area like I do makes buying from the internet a necessity rather than an option. I can purchase or just shop on the web for a pair of shoes and when I go to the Weather Channel five minutes later I will see an ad for the exact shoes I just bought or looked for.
Saving the best item to close with from the article I received was one thing that Obama, Congress, the Supreme Court or anybody else on earth can’t change is our “Memories”
Along with myself, many have already lost or can’t remember some already!
I wish I could give credit to the person that wrote the article I received but the message and even my commentary should be a warning that our biggest enemy is our own government. You can be assured they will find ways to make it worse, more difficult and tax it to maintain our welfare systems. Keep the poor, poorer to get re-elected.
C Brewer
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