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Times Are Changing…Faster and Faster

It’s tricky sorting out societal evolutions and revolutions from short-lived fads. Here’s why the pundits are saying some of our long-loved staples and institutions are on their way out.

1.  The Post Office.  Get ready for America without Post Offices--already so deep in the red that there is probably no way to sustain them.  Email, Fed Ex, and UPS have just about wiped out the minimum revenue needed to keep the postal service alive.
 
2.  The Check.  Britain is already laying the groundwork to do away with checks by 2018.  It costs our financial system billions of dollars a year to process them.  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 or received your bills by mail, the post office would go out of business quickly. 
 
3.  The Newspaper.  The younger generation simply doesn't read newspapers,  much less subscribe to them.  As for reading the paper online, get ready to pay for it.  The rise in mobile Internet devices and e-readers has caused 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 book that you hold in your hand? I said the same thing about CDs until I started downloading music from iTunes. The same thing is happening to 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. 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 it simply because they've always had it.  But you are paying double for that extra service.  All the cell phone companies will let you call customers using the same cell provider for no charge against your minutes. 

6.  Music.   Sadly, the music industry, too, 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 are the problems.  The record labels and radio conglomerates are self-destructing.  Over 40% of music purchased today is "catalog items," meaning traditional music familiar to the public.  This is also true on the live concert circuit.  To explore this disturbing topic further, check out the book, "Appetite for Self-Destruction" by Steve Knopper, and the video documentary, "Before the Music Dies."

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