Very interesting synopsis of how society is changing and the domino effect.

Whether the changes that our society is experiencing are good or bad depends in part on how we adapt to them. But, ready or not, here they come!

1. The Post Office. Get ready to imagine a world without the post office. They are so deeply in financial trouble that there is probably no way to sustain it long term. Email, Fed Ex, and UPS have just about wiped out the minimum revenue needed to keep the post office alive. Most of your mail every day is junk mail and bills.

2. The Check. Great Britain is already laying the groundwork to do away with checks by 2018. It costs the financial system billions of dollars a year to process checks. Plastic cards and online transactions will lead to the eventual demise of the check. This plays right into the death of the post office. If you never paid your bills by mail and never received them by mail, the post office would absolutely go out of business.

3. The Newspaper. The younger generation simply doesn't read the newspaper. They certainly don't subscribe to a daily delivered print edition. That may go the way of the milkman and the laundry man. As for reading the paper online, get ready to pay for it. The rise in mobile Internet devices and e-readers has caused all the newspaper and magazine publishers to form an alliance. They have met with Apple, Amazon, and the major cell phone companies to develop a model for paid subscription services.

4. The Book. You say you will never give up the physical book that you hold in your hand and turn the literal pages. I said the same thing about downloading music from iTunes. I wanted my hard copy CD. But I quickly changed my mind when I discovered that I could get albums for half the price without ever leaving home to get the latest music. The same thing is happening with books. You can browse a bookstore online and even read a preview chapter before you buy. And the price is less than half that of a real book. And think of the convenience! Once you start flicking your fingers on the screen instead of the book, you find that you are lost in the story, can't wait to see what happens next, and you forget that you're holding a gadget instead of a book.


5. The Land Line Telephone. Unless you have a large family and make a lot of local calls, you don't need it anymore. Most people keep their and line telephone simply because they're always had it. But you are paying double charges for that extra service. All the cell phone companies will let you call others that use the same cell provider for no charge against your minutes.


6. Music. This is one of the saddest parts of the change story. The music industry is dying a slow death. Not just because of illegal downloading. It's the lack of innovative new music being given a chance to get to the people who would like to hear it. Greed and corruption is the problem. Over 40% of the music purchased today is "catalog items," meaning traditional music that the public is familiar with -- older established artists. This is also true on the live concert circuit. To explore this fascinating and disturbing topic further, check out the book, "Appetite for Self-Destruction" by Steve Knopper, and the video documentary, "Before the Music Dies."


7. Television. Revenues to the networks are down dramatically, and not just because of the economy. People are watching TV programs and movies streamed from their computers. And they're playing games and doing all lots of other things that take up the time that used to be spent watching TV. Prime time shows have degenerated down to lower than the lowest common denominator. Cable rates are skyrocketing and commercials run about every 4 minutes and 30 seconds. I say good riddance to most of it It's time for the cable companies to be put out of our misery. Let the people choose what they want to watch online and through Netflix.


8. The "Things" That You Own. Many of the very possessions that we used to own are still in our lives, but we may not actually own them in the future. They may simply reside in "the cloud." Today your computer has a hard drive and you store your pictures, music, movies, and documents. Your software is on a CD or DVD, and you can always re-install it if need be. But all of that is changing. Apple, Microsoft, and Google are all finishing up their latest "cloud services." That means that when you turn on a computer, the Internet will be built into the operating system. So, Windows, Google, and the Mac OS will be tied straight into the Internet. If you click an icon, it will open something in the Internet cloud. If you save something, it will be saved to the cloud. And you may pay a monthly subscription fee to the cloud provider.

In this virtual world, you can access your music or your books, or your whatever from any laptop or handheld device. That's the good news. But, will you actually own any of this "stuff" or will it all be able to disappear at any moment in a big "Poof?" Will most of the things in our lives be disposable and whimsical? It makes you want to run to the closet and pull out that photo album, grab a book from the shelf, or open up a CD case and pull out the insert.


9. Privacy. If there ever was a concept that we can look back on nostalgically, it would be privacy. That's gone. It's been gone for a long time anyway. There are cameras on the street, in most of the buildings, and even built into your computer and cell phone. But you can be sure that 24/7 "They" know who you are and where you are, right down to the GPS coordinates, and the Google Street View. If you buy something, your habit is put into a zillion profiles, and your ads will change to reflect those habits. And "They" will try to get you to buy something else. Again and again.


All we will have that can't be changed are the Memories.

This is one of the most thought provoking posts I have ever seen here.
I disagree on a few points though:

1. The USPS is NOT going away. Congress causes the debt problem with unlimited free franking privileges to their constituents. They are going to keep that freebie.

2. CD's; not going away either for ten more years. The music companies have to get a good add-on electronic jukebox into a lot more vehicles for that to happen.

3. Newspapers, we just get one so my wife can do crossword puzzles I think, and the news about our Boise State Broncos every morning. The permanent record you have in hand is much easier to see quickly than cruising the web. Merchants need it to advertise sales.

Privacy, what's that?

Carry one large caliber, high-cap autoloader wherever you go. When you reach bottom, shoot your way out...

Rich

I guess they'll be nothing left to do but go hunting.

# 5 - cell phones don't work in all areas ! They won't work from my property .Areas of limited towers and with mountains are questionable ! It's fun to watch visiters here pull out their cell phones and do a dance trying to find a signal !

Thoughtful stuff. Our children are being acclimated to that very society.
I don't agree that the PO will go away, if for no other reason than those posted.
I don't agree about the cyberspace "info cloud". Folks still like their possesions. And they like them close so's they can have and hold.

Let's try this:

walnut stocks...

steel receivers...

GOOD adjustable iron sites (both open (CZ452's are on the way out) and aperture)...

FIXED power scopes in 4x and 6x

Blued firearms...

UNguided hunts...

Lead bullets...

Plaid hunting coats...

Stormy Kromer hats...

5mm rimfire...

17HM2...

pie crusts made with lard...

Feel free to add your own...

never did like plaid hunting coats. They make me look fat...

Rich

Your right dampatents,

Deer tent camps with camaradrie and real fires with wood smoke and sleeping bags and blankets that barely kept you warm but nobody cared. Everbody had fun.

Rabbit Hunting and more rabbit hunting and wet paper shells and howling beagles.

Happiness just shooting any deer and being so, so happy.

35 Remington in an old Remington 141 with a leather sling.

Runnin Trot Lines on a July night on a Missouri Ozark River in an ole river jon with the crickets talking without having to worry about someone racing down the river in a jetboat and stealing your lines and stagings.

How many guys do you know who still squirrel hunt and do it well.

Paper Deer Tags that you punched a hole into and tied onto the deer you shot.

The big conversation when you were going hunting on how to best waterproof your boots?

People who really, really needed that deer to feed their family and watching my father give his away for just such a reason. There used to be a purpose, even more than just wanting to go hunting, for going hunting. (not that any reason is a bad reason?)

Cheap Solingen $2.50 sheath knives, extra hollow ground, high carbon, that you could lay an edge on quickly.

Rubber-backed ponchos before the days of goretex.

Men who dragged their sons along on hunting trips and taught them the culture of what they were doing not just the mechanics.

Everybody meeting at the local check station and admiring all the deer brought in.

I still cook cobbler in a dutch oven in the woods but not many us still do that.

Already, some banks in Sweden won't do business with CASH!!

With the growing population and urban sprawl there is less available hunting land. Canada and Alaska are truly the last frontiers and Canada is not gun friendly.