Death Inc

You make some interesting points bageled.

What's he is saying is kind of like what people have been saying since the 60's, 70's, 80's etc as computers rose to become ubiquitous. People were saying that in 2000 computers would be doing all the work and we would only be doing 4 hour days... now we are arguably working more overtime then ever, and perhaps computers have made even more jobs- like the people that maintain and repair them, server admins, data managers, etc. Maybe the part about 4 hour work days is not true but they have, and continue to, revolutionise they way the developed world conducts its business.

It's true that computers and the internet are causing a cultural revolution. The way we do business IS changing but we need to embrace it and adapt. Take for example, the film and recording industry. 200 years ago actors and musicians had to perform live shows to make their living. In comes technology like record players and TV's and suddenly these people's jobs become a lot easier- one performance can reach an exponentially larger audience. The film and music industries were born, and became complacent, maybe even lazy as technology allowed them to rake in cash for a fraction of the work their predecessors did. The corporate fatcats built a billion dollar empire on the backs of a few talented individuals. Now that everyone has the internet, they realise they can get their products for nothing- thus this lowers the apparent value of films and recordings. The corporate fatcats are crying foul and are looking for ways to stifle the devloping technology instead of embracing it and looking to change their business model to take advantage. They will probably never make as much money as they used to but I would argue that is because they were making far more than what was fair for their products. Itunes is a good example of how they have embraced the technology and structured their business around it, hell Apple itself is a great example of a dynamic, internet-savvy company that is not too rooted in its old ways to get left behind by the internet revolution and cry foul at the developing technologies. More companies need to follow their lead (even though Jobs is a scumbag who would sell his mother if he thought it was a good business decision... look up how he screwed over Wozniak in the days of Atari for more info).

The point about ebay is good, someone just happened to have a good idea and implemented it first, and managed to nearly monopolise the market. There is one potential downfall of internet commerce- with the greater market reach and globalisation it allows, it is arguably easier to create a monopoly. The point about classifieds is valid, although it goes back to what I was saying before- instead of crying foul about it, the media needs to move forward and change the way they do business to provide a better value to the internet generation.

At the end of the day, companies that trade in information need to embrace the information revolution- not struggle against it. Will innocent people suffer as they lose their jobs? Maybe, although it seems to me lately that corporate fatcats doing dodgy things on the stock market and running companies into the ground are a bigger threat.

Anyway you made me think and that's something I don't do enough of so +1 for you

User

ShoutBox