Loosing jobs to technology

Lately I have been seeing things a bit differently, for instance as I am watching television there is an ad about getting "movies on demand" directly from your living room couch. I imagine most of us would think it a great idea, no need to either walk or drive to the video store, no need for returns either and, most but not least, no late fees! However, when I think about it I wondered how this would affect the people at the video store in our village, I believe there are 5 people working there including the owner.

During my last visit at the video store, I chatted with the owner about how her business had changed these past years, and she was sad to say that she was loosing a bit more each year and she might have to close shop sooner than she thought. Between the downloads and the on demand movies from cable providers her shop has lost ground. Consequently, our community will soon lose its only video store and 5 people will have to look for a job. But it is not only the small shops,the big guys like Blockbusters are also losing grounds.

This is a trend that is affecting so many different spheres of the work force that one wonders how long it will take before the majority of us find ourselves out of jobs.

It has affected my family directly, for twenty five years my husband was a photographer specializing in artist's portfolios and art work reproduction, trough trial and error he perfected his craft to get the right lighting, composition, angle and mood. He could make an art work look even better than the original.

He tried to keep up with the times and invested in new equipments and new technologies. However, while he thought he was investing in his business, his client base was dwindling. After several years of upgrading he was actually using his savings to keep his studio open. What happened? Progress and simplified digital photography for all and, most of his clients started doing their own shooting. It did not matter that the end results weren't technically perfect, hey, they didn't have to spend money on a photographer!

Most of our friends in the profession are turning to other avenues to earn a living, for some the transition was not so bad but for others it was very difficult.

Then their are all those small shops that used to make a town or a village, they gave character to the main streets. People got to know each other, it was colorful and lively. Now, most of these places are replaced by Corporate Stores, convenient but without soul. Where cashiers are slowly replaced by self check cashiers, where the service clerks are replaced by scanners or computers. These Corporate Stores are becoming one stop shop all, from groceries to clothing and car parts too medication, no need to go on main street. Consequently, small shops are closing or have to specialize.

Is technology slowly killing the work force, now I find that a bit scary since we all need money in this world to sustain ourselves. So, how will we earn a living if machines and technologies are doing the work? They say that the service industries will be our future, but how many services can we provide to sustain our ever growing population? And, who will be able to pay for them if the majority of people are working at meaningless jobs at minimum wage salaries?

If you watch the news then you can see all the destruction that mother nature is inflicting on all the different areas of our planet. If this keeps up, I wonder how long the Insurance Companies will be able to stay afloat, and how long the governments will be able to provide financial relief to the victims? And how technology will be able to help the global financial crisis for all of us to benefit?

I wonder how many of us will be able to reinvent ourselves to find suitable employment or start a new business. I guess only time will tell if we can continuously innovate our economic growth, or will we have to change our ways to survive this new century.

I wonder if cable tv and all its new channels are not design to hypnoptize the global populations into inertia? In a positive note the broadcasting industry is providing work for a lot of people. However, when the rest of us will be out of work and run out of money...who will be watching? No money, no cable, and so on...

Other promising jobs are in health care (as long as we have health insurance), then the legal sphere and lets not forget new technologies because we need smarter phones, computers, cameras and whatever else. Lets face it, we can not stop progress, but it would be nice if progress could serve us all better. For each new thing we come up with; we create a new problem...

All of this leaves me wondering...what is next?