08/14/95

			   Where Has Your Job Gone?
			    by Patrick G. Salsbury
			   <salsbury@sculptors.com>

	What future economies will develop as we progress into higher and
higher levels of independence?
	Think about it...ever since the dawn of humankind, it has been a
survival skill to band together for warmth, for protection, for
companionship, for help, and countless other things. But what does the future
hold, when every day, our technologies bring us closer and closer to true
independence? 
	Nowadays, most marketing and advertising amounts to little more than a
cry of "Buy our products!" and some attempt to show why you _need_ whatever it
is that the other person might be selling. If we think back to caveman times,
it is easy to imagine that people _would_ need each other for basic
survival. Today, though, the everyday tools and technologies available to 
humans have raised living standards to the point where such banding together
is no longer necessary. 
	How many people actually _need_ a specific headache remedy? Or any one
special kind of disposable diaper? Or a certain brand of novelty rubber snake?
If you listen to the companies making these products, they will assure you
that _everyone_ needs whatever it is they're selling, however, it quickly
becomes apparent that this is not the case.
	In fact, when viewed this way, it almost seems that those selling are
in the "underdog" position in the transaction. They have some product that
they are trying to sell, so that they can get more money. This implies that
they don't have enough money as-is, and are trying to get more. 

	What happens when people start getting the ability to be
self-sufficient? 
	What happens when people start owning their own homes completely (not
paying mortgages to the banks), and their cars, and find themselves freed up
from the stress of having monthly money-shortages?
	What happens when people start using the Internet to educate
themselves at home, freely tapping into the resources and libraries of
THOUSANDS of universities around the world, rather than paying thousands of
dollars to go to only one school?
	What happens when people use this newfound knowledge and resource-base
to free themselves from the ties of society? To travel around the world and
meet others, rather than spending their life on a factory line or at a desk? 
	What happens when nanotechnology finally hits? And suddenly everyone
has the ability to make ANYTHING THEY WANT by recycling the molecules from
last week's trash? 
	What happens when molecular medical devices can go through a person
and clean out all the harmful pollutants and diseases? Suddenly they won't
need to go to hospitals anymore...or not nearly as often. When you can buy the
knowledge and medical care of all the doctors in the world, and get it for
$.05 out of a gumball machine (a "Doctor Pill", if you will), then suddenly
EVERYONE will be healthy. Sure, we'll still need doctors, but not just to
treat a sore throat or allergy or virus or infection. (Or cancer, or broken
bone, or Leukemia...)
	In short, what happens to this whole idea of "Buy our products!" when
people have everything they could want? How do you entice someone to spend
money on something they could just as easily build themselves at home with a
nano-machine? And how do you know they didn't just manufacture a pile of
money, anyway?
	When families and individuals have the ability to build their own
spaceships, and head out into the Universe, how do you market to them? CAN you
do so? And why would you want to? After all, you could manufacture your own
pile of money, so why spend your time trying to get it from other people? 

	I'm sure that "money" (in some form) will still be around, but I'm not
guessing what form that will be. We're still going to need doctors after the
"Doctor Pill", because even though we may know how to treat 99% of diseases,
there are always new ones popping up. In this case, we have raised the
_standards_ by which people live, and freed up the remaining doctors to go
research new things. We'll pay them with whatever is considered "money" for
their time and work...at least until someone makes an updated "Doctor Pill."
	;^)


Most Recent Update: 01-25-97