Transition to the Information Age Proving Harder Than Expected

AsiaLynx.com ^ | 10/27/2009 | Randal Rayborn

[Mr. Jeeves]

Hong Kong - a beacon of hope to the American worker? (photo: Randal Rayborn)

The pundits told us the great transition from the Industrial Age to Information Age would be easy. Nothing like the wrenching social dislocations of the 1800’s, when people left behind the grinding poverty of rural agrarian life to earn better wages laboring in urban factories. This time, the transition would require nothing more difficult than a bit of retraining. Add a few computer skills to your resume, those pundits assured us, and all the golden rewards of the new Age would rain down upon you.

During the dot-com era, that rosy forecast seemed to be coming true. Multi-millionaires were born every day in the Great Internet Land Rush, and for a time it seemed the Information Age had already arrived, after a quick and painless transition. Even the sudden collapse of the dot-com bubble didn’t dampen many spirits – yes, a few of the kids had gotten too eager, but the economic changes the boom had wrought were permanent – and the industrial economy the United States was rapidly losing to Asia and Latin America simply didn’t matter any more. The era of the service economy had dawned, and if Americans could no longer compete for industrial work against a global labor force…well, it just didn’t matter. Take a few computer classes, and Joe Steelworker could get right back into the game.

But a new trend was taking hold, one that the American media and government to this day refuse to recognize, much less accommodate – the greatest casualty of the transition to the Information Age is the job.

[Mr. Jeeves]

Neither Obama nor the MSM seem to recognize that "the job" is dead, and their prescriptions for creating these "jobs" and reviving the economy without the participation of genuine capitalism are worse than the disease.

[charles1252]

Welcome to Service America, industries that provide a service at a specific location (and can't be exported)like hotels, restaurants, hospitals, retail stores, repairman, car dealerships etc.

[Mr. Jeeves]

Ping for the evening readers...