The Economy and Society
Shifts in technology, transportation, and communications are creating a world that
refuses to slow down. In today's world, anything can be made anywhere on the face of the earth and sold everywhere else on
the face of the earth. A substantial difference exists between global business firms with a worldview and national governments
that focus on the welfare of "their" voters.
With these shifts, the world's population is growing, moving, and getting older.
There are two types of populations emerging. There are those in poorer countries who are moving from their homelands to richer
countries just when unskilled labor is not needed in the wealthy industrial world.
In the rich countries, there is a very large group of elderly, relatively affluent
people who are dependent upon government social welfare payments for much of their income.
Fuel cells replace fossil fuels, resulting in
cleaner air and water, and ending reliance on foreign oil. Agri-bio technology creates cheaper and healthier foods. Information
Appliances and Portable Devices make information and knowledge available to where it is needed. In addition, Human-Machine
Interface and Virtual Assistants make information and knowledge easier to find. Such technologies enable a society to predominantly
learn and earn from home, through Telework, Online Publishing, and E-Commerce. Financial transactions are handled by Electronic
Banks, with individuals making purchases with Electronic Cash. What individuals purchase are customized to their specifications
by Automated Factories.
Cost and quality of products and services enable individuals access to their wants and needs. This
results in focus on humanity's values.
At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, approximately in 1800, only 3 percent
of the world's people were living in cities; fully 97 percent were rural, living on farms or in small towns. In the two centuries
since then, population distribution has changed radically- toward the cities.
More people will live in Mexico City by the end of the 1990s than were living in
all the cities of the world combined 200 years earlier. This is a staggering difference in the way people live. Almost half
of the world population is in cities now, with a very high proportion of the people who are being added to the population
also being city dwellers.
In the less developed world, this tends to lead to increasing exploitation of those
who live in rural areas and produce the food, wood, and other commodities on which the city dwellers depend. Even in industrialized
countries such as the United States, urbanization tends to make us collectively less able to understand and appreciate biological
productivity, on which our common future depends. The great majority of all world population growth over the next few
decades will take place in the cities, with all of the problems that implies.
