Technological Waves per Debora Spar

[pbrower2a]

(09-28-2021, 11:41 AM)David Horn Wrote:

(09-28-2021, 07:59 AM)sbarrera Wrote:

(09-27-2021, 08:27 PM)nguyenivy Wrote: Can we use the knowledge of how technologies were developed & used over prior times to figure out how the coming Turnings will play out at least in the realm of technology? The 'wild west' era of the 1990s online environments didn't become noticeable until long after it passed. Is it likely that 'big tech' will not be broken up/disturbed during the upcoming 1T due to a social environment that demands stability? It seems likely the tech structure will not be messed with (except to make it accessible to more people via funding more broadband infrastructure development) any time soon considering COVID-19 made us all a lot more reliant on it.

I think that all in all, the masses are happy with "Big Tech" despite the complaining about their power that does happen. The reasons aren't complicated: it makes everyone's lives easier to have just a few companies to rely on for what you do online - buy stuff, message people, share vacation photos, check headlines. Information monopolies form because people would rather have a few simple, consistent portals to access for their needs rather than a plethora of options which just means more work. Eventually, come the next 2T, the social mood will involve questioning the status quo and there will be room for outliers and outsiders again.

I suspect this is correct, but that doesn't exempt Big Tech from Big Taxes.  These are inevitable at this point, and today's new taxes, like savvy bank robbers, will go where the money is.  We've tried handing the rich the checkbook,and got nothing for it, so it's time for paybacks all around.

It is reasonable to heavily tax the big, lucrative part of the economy and not assume that its growth solves all problems.We see plenty of dying or shrinking industries, and they often get taxed heavily. I'm not going to say that high taxes killed Sears, as Sears had other problems (like being unable to recruit and keep the sorts of people who might nave innovated within to make it an up-to-date way of doing business).

I predict that we are going to use novel technologies to do such things as fit clothing to people so that there won't be as much waste in merchandising the wrong stuff. That could take laser measuring to fit fabric to our contours and automated cutting. That would put high technology into the stodgy business of selling clothes.

We are almost certainly leaving the neoliberal era in which the consensus was that elite gain, power, and indulgence were the cornerstones of overall prosperity even when elite power, gain, and indulgence came at the expense of everyone else. Plutocrats are reliable only at creating wealth for themselves, especially if such requires the sweating of the masses. I'm not sure that the American economy was more efficient when real wages had shrunk for most people over forty years.