Posted on 03/18/2017 6:04:20 PM PDT by upchuck
Complete article here: http://www.kiplinger.com/slideshow/business/T057-S001-7-things-that-will-soon-disappear/index.html
Quick list:
1. Keys - Keys, at least in the sense of a piece of brass cut to a specific shape, are going away.
2. Blackouts - Frustrating power outages that leave people with fridges full of ruined food are on their way out as our electrical grid becomes increasingly intelligent – and resilient.
3. Fast-food workers - Burger-flippers have targets on their backs as fast-food executives are eager to replace them with machines, particularly as minimum wages in a variety of states are set to rise to $15.
4. The clutch pedal - Every year it seems that an additional car model loses the manual transmission option. Even the Ford F-150 pickup truck can’t be purchased with a stick anymore.
5. College textbooks - By the end of this decade, digital formats for tablets and e-readers will displace physical books for assigned reading on college campuses. K–12 schools won’t be far behind, though they’ll mostly stick with larger computers as their platform of choice.
6. Dial-up Internet - According to a study from the Pew Foundation, only 3% of U.S. households went online via a dial-up connection in 2013. Thirteen years before that, only 3% had broadband (Today, 70% have home broadband). Massive federal spending on broadband initiatives, passed during the last recession to encourage economic recovery, has helped considerably.
7. The plow - Modern farmers have little use for it. It provides a deep tillage that turns up too much soil, encouraging erosion because the plow leaves no plant material on the surface to stop wind and rain water from carrying the soil away. It also requires a huge amount of diesel fuel to plow, compared with other tillage methods, cutting into farmers' profits. The final straw: It releases more carbon dioxide into the air than other tillage methods.
8. Your neighborhood mail collection box - The amount of mail people are sending is plummeting, down 57% from 2004 to 2015 for stamped first-class pieces. So, around the country, the U.S. Postal Service has been cutting back on those iconic blue collection boxes. The number has fallen by more than half since the mid 1980s. Since it costs time and fuel for mail carriers to stop by each one, the USPS monitors usage and pulls out boxes that don't see enough traffic.
9. Your privacy - If you are online, you had better assume that you already have no privacy and act accordingly. Every mouse click and keystroke is tracked, logged and potentially analyzed and eventually used by Web site product managers, marketers, hackers and others. To use most services, users have to opt-in to lengthy terms and conditions that allow their data to be crunched by all sorts of actors.
10. The incandescent lightbulb - No, government energy cops are not coming for your bulbs. But the traditional incandescent lightbulb that traces its roots back to Thomas Edison is definitely on its way out. As of January 1, 2014, the manufacture and importation of 40- to 100-watt incandescent bulbs became illegal in the U.S., part of a much broader effort to get Americans to use less electricity.
If you have a machine, you don't need the library.
Checkbooks YES!
Bank of America Bill Pay is much easier than writing checks and licking stamps and sealing envelopes.
Please add Target to things that will be going away.
#7--the end of plowing--may not happen because today's plows don't damage the soil as much as it was in the past, thanks to improved plow designs. You still need to plow the soil to make the most of the nutrients in the soil.
V6 gas burner.
For the price I learned to get back to manual for the daily driver.
As complicated as the new stuff is and old stuff not being as plentiful, I’m amazed at times how these parts stores make it.
Other than some lines for hoses and routine misc. items, I rarely buy anything.
My stuff has to come from online places like Amazon, Kaiser-Willys, LMC, and the like.
The weather still causes blackouts around - they are not going away anytime soon. And no not every home can afford Musk’s power wall.
I still see them sold.
Amazon still sells the 100w equivalent CFL. When a CFL fails here we are switching to leds. The color spectrum is easier on the eye and the price has dropped dramatically.
Glad I still have my fax machine.”””
I live rural. My neighbors depend on MY fax machine more than I do. But I won’t let it go. Too useful.
I have a stockpile of incadescent bulbs—and they only cost me about 40 cents each....not 4 times that.
I still drive a truck with a Granny low 4 speed I won’t give it up. Don’t care about the low mileage-—costs me much less than truck payments-—registration-—& insurance. It is paid for. It is easy to fix.
Privacy-—don’t get on ANY social media websites. Biggest website I use is right here. Gates all say NO TRESPASSING—which means something where I live.
Still have plenty of things to mail. Won’t do online banking EVER.
Don’t use a cell phone. Land line only. Have driven over 1 million miles in my lifetime without a cell phone. Will make it to the end of my days.....
Hmmm... Bit Torrent.
Excellent, fictionalized account of an EMP attack is this book.
I hear you.
I used to have my own boring bar to do my overhauls did it all the time. The last six cars I bought I haven't even opened the hood. I replaced absolutely nothing on those cars. Oil changes are now done at 10,000 we used to do it at 1,000 things have changed.
Of course these light weight cars have a lot of road noise so I miss some of my older Cadillacs and Town cars. [:-)
Ah! I missed that, since I quickly saw the multi-page links and shut the page down. Thanks, POF.
After 100K an automatic transmission is a ticking $3,000 repair time bomb. A new clutch OTH is $400.00.
After 100K an automatic transmission is a ticking $3,000 repair time bomb. A new clutch OTH is $400.00.
Metal keys will never go obsolete. There are things that need to be locked that will stay that way longer than batteries last. They are smaller than a keypad as well.
The quality of technical documentation has plummeted with the increase of online material. Lots of circular links to virtually content-less material. People don’t seem to be able to write coherently anymore.
Books will come back in style once civilization collapses. It will collapse, given the cultural-suicidal nature of Western leadership.
I’d like to thing all of us would be concerned about having the right things on hand following a massive EMP attack, meteor strike, or other civilization destroying event. Too much reliance on RF and computer widgets is not that wise.
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