What Is The Economic Impact Of Technology On The Physical Make-up Of Future America? (small business, sell)

[Lincolnian]

What is the economic impact of technology on the physical make-up of America? Many companies, large and small are eliminating their physical locations and instead having their employees work from their homes and vehicles. If large commercial buildings and commercial centers are no longer needed what happens to the workers that support building, repairing, and maintaining those facilities? With companies like Amazon becoming increasingly more popular what happens to the small businesses and chain retailers that sell similar products? How does the elimination of physical businesses affect the tax structure of cities and towns dependent on critical business tax revenue to sustain services and infrastructure?

I see technology as significantly reducing the need for workers. If everything moves to lowest cost it is conceivable that many of these products may be shipped from foreign countries with companies like Federal Express and UPS playing a critical role. In addition, this shift has a significant impact on reducing personal human interaction affecting the structure and management of a company.

How far will technology penetrate into eliminating physical businesses and reducing the need for workers?

[Philip T]

And eliminate their customer at the same time . . . .

Not that far to see ahead.

When the cash is bled out of us, so will capacity to be a customer.

That is the path the US is on.

Towards your more general question . . . answer is Ghost Town.

Plenty of prior civilizations on that list.

[Chango]

If current trends remain, the future of America is more or less the present in Europe and will devolve into something similar to Latin America.

In other words, an increasingly smaller proportion of the population will hold more of the wealth while the majority gets ever poorer and opportunity for the majority becomes increasingly harder to come by.

I suspect "consumer culture" will die a slow death as fewer people will have money to "partake" and general expectations of what a decent life decrease... which in some ways will be good, but will also be very, VERY bad in other ways.

As for technology, I'm worried we'll end up as two seperate species of "haves" and "have-nots"... the "haves" will enjoy medical and nanotech advances that will make them into virtual supermen while the poor majority only barely scrape by, completely unable to benefit from otherwise world-changing upcoming scientific/technical advances.

[pvande55]

You could have said that 120 years ago when 50% of US workers worked on farms and mechanization was to reduce it to 2% today. Yet somehow we survived.

[Lincolnian]

Originally Posted by pvande55

You could have said that 120 years ago when 50% of US workers worked on farms and mechanization was to reduce it to 2% today. Yet somehow we survived.

I agree. However, we did have some help. Theodore Roosevelt and others had a hand in helping to establish balance so that unbridled greed did not take over to the detriment of the people as a whole. Conditions today share many similarities with the beginning of the last century.

We have many opportunities. Developing the next generation energy and transportation systems has the potential to spur the next revolutionary era. It could be a catalytic renaissance for many related industries including construction and the trades as well as engineering and technology.

[texdav]

Automation will have to take the place of shortages in many highly techincal fields that lack workers. They wil do it 24hrs a day and make far fewer mistakes.

[JazzyTallGuy]

Originally Posted by Lincolnian

What is the economic impact of technology on the physical make-up of America? Many companies, large and small are eliminating their physical locations and instead having their employees work from their homes and vehicles. If large commercial buildings and commercial centers are no longer needed what happens to the workers that support building, repairing, and maintaining those facilities? With companies like Amazon becoming increasingly more popular what happens to the small businesses and chain retailers that sell similar products? How does the elimination of physical businesses affect the tax structure of cities and towns dependent on critical business tax revenue to sustain services and infrastructure?

I see technology as significantly reducing the need for workers. If everything moves to lowest cost it is conceivable that many of these products may be shipped from foreign countries with companies like Federal Express and UPS playing a critical role. In addition, this shift has a significant impact on reducing personal human interaction affecting the structure and management of a company.

How far will technology penetrate into eliminating physical businesses and reducing the need for workers?

America is becoming a "Winner Take All" society instead of "The American Dream". I'll explain that statement. It used to be in this country that a person could get decent job and be pretty much guaranteed a "Middle Class Lifestyle", which included a house, a car or two, a decent education for your children, and various material possessions. That was for many "The American Dream".

"Winner Take All" is about those people with the necessary education, talent, skills, and risk taking ability to be successful in a society where the biggest rewards go to technical innovation, the ability to exploit financial strategies successfully, and the ability to successfully create new businesses. In a society like this there is very little middle ground, which is why you see the middle class being threatened in this country.

The ability to work and hold a job has now become commoditized through globalization. Workers in the United States now compete with workers and Asia, Europe and other places around the world for employment. The bottom line is as a worker if you can't return greater value or quality than somebody else on another part of the planet your job security is threatened. That's just the world we live in today.