Posted on 04/22/2018 6:13:57 AM PDT by sodpoodle
Ten Things That Will Disappear In Our Lifetime
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 Check
Britain is already laying the groundwork to do away with check by 2018. It costs the financial system billions of dollars a year to process checks. Plastic cards and online transactions will lead to the eventual demise of the check. 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.. This is present-day North America. When crooks rob banks they go to prison. When they rob the taxpayer they get re-elected
And it’s a third of the price of the landline. Yes, we kept the landline for years thinking of the emergency aspect but the price hikes finally convinced us to make the change.
Yes. indeed.
“The safe, self driving car is amost (but not quite) as achievable as the flying car. “
There are flying cars.
1. Post Office - Wrong. See Constitution.
2. Checks - Wrong. Contract with signature presented in person.
4. The Book - Wrong. E-Books cannot be highlighted. Some geek nerd illiterate programmed HIS inferior software highlights.
3. Newspaper - The Washington Times is still the last worthy paper.
“How did you live without that expensive toy in your pocket???”
There is the problem with your reasoning. It is not a toy. It is a tool.
“I pick up the phone when it rings. If there is no “hello”
within two seconds I hang it up. “
The scammers have just recorded that there is a live person at your end that picks up the phone and your numbers is now sold to many more scammers!
To their mailboxes. We have a ‘cluster box’ in front of my property, and there are 31 boxes used in it. one box is for outgoing mail. Harder for mail to e stolen, also.
“That is no more annoying than having to haul out the cell phone to look at the number. “
Alexa tells me who is calling. I don’t have to haul out the cell phone.
To their mailboxes. We have a ‘cluster box’ in front of my property, and there are 31 boxes used in it. one box is for outgoing mail. Harder for mail to e stolen, also.
Another thing- The mail deliver persons will notify Deputies if someone is NOT collecting their mail in case they need to have a ‘wellness check’. The UPS guy knew more about what was goingon in the rural valley than the deputies did. It was a loss when he retired. Many retired people get their meds in the mail, also out here.
“Wrong. E-Books cannot be highlighted”
WRONG!
4. The Book
Since E-Books cannot be highlighted, reading E-Books is a futile waste of time. If you ever read an E-Book, you have proclaimed, my time is not valuable to me.
Build a wooden deck without pencil highlights. You wasted your valuable time.
“Build a wooden deck without pencil highlights. “
I didn’t carry a book around the last time I built a wooden deck!
How did you mark the wood for cutting?
Phone & Fax—over 40 years ago . Needed Fax for my bookkeeping business.
The computer I an typing this on is over 28 years old (around 1990) & the one I do bookkeeping on I bought in Nov 1991. Still using it with the ORIGINAL software. DOS software.
One client changed CPA’s about 3 years go. First set of data I sent him—I got a call from him. He was impressed that I provided him with financials, copy of bank rec, and statements about status of payroll taxes & W-2’s & 1099’s. Then he asked me what kind of software I was using because he really liked the financials I sent him
I told him Dac-Easy-—and that I had bought it in Nov 1991. It is NOT connected to the internet & there isn’t even a modem in the unit. All keyboard. He was amazed. I had as many as 19 clients on that system at one time. Now I only do 2 clients—one over 48 years & one over 44 years.
We talked for about 1/2 hour, with him asking me questions about “where ARE you? What accounting education did I have? How much do I charge for my services? All legit questions from a new CPA.
I live over 500 miles from that client & depend on the mail for data back & forth. He said if I live closer, he could find at least 60 hours of work for me at $40 an hour if I wanted it. I said—no, but if someone needed something done in the same manner I did with that client, he could call me. But I was NOT moving back to So Calif with my horses.
None the less, it certainly was a nice “Atta Girl”.
“How did you mark the wood for cutting?”
What does that have to do with a book?
I have rarely had a gps show me the correct location of anything. One time, it said I was driving several thousand mph. It always shows the path from town to home is out in the middle of the river. It’s constant, “recalculating” was so annoying we took that one out of the car and threw it into the back of the storage closet. No, I think I’ll continue to drive myself.
That is poor lousy highlighting. That is a computer geeks idea of highlighting. It it very inferior.
Look at the standard ASCII table of computer alphanumerics. Some computer gerk ‘decided’ that a check mark was not necessary while the opposing crossout X was needed. Computer geeks are inconsistent and inferior.
Same for E-Book highlights. That is not how good highlighting works, it is a geeks poor choice.
Sorry to burst your bubble.
Another time, instead of going from A, to B, to c, it took me from A, to Q, to C, to L, to X wasting my time and gas driving all over town.
“I told him Dac-Easy-—and that I had bought it in Nov 1991.”
Dude, the tax tables have changed quite a bit since 1991 ....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.