Nothings really changed.

 I was at the mall on Sunday where I set in the food court and watched the people. The one thing that struck me was how nothing had really changed except that the cell phone has made people less aware of what is going on around them. The stores where, for the most part the same. More sales promotions and kiosks then before, but still just stores trying to lure you in.

The people where pretty much the same as always, the normal groups where there. The family groups, the mother daughter groups, the various teenage groupings. Then there where the couple groups, the lovers and the single people. The same groups of people as there where at the malls thirty years ago. People still dresses to get attention, dress to stand out or at least to look nice.

As I walked through the mall I looked for anything new. The only thing new in the last thirty five years has been the pervasiveness of the Internet (the web was invented in 1991). Everything else was introduced prior to 1976. The most prolific time for inventions and new ideas that changed the way we live happened from 1875 to 1976. Everything else (with the exception of the world wide web) are refinements of those inventions and ideas that are more then thirty years old.

The only new thing in the life time of all the young folks (those under thirty) is the world wide web. The inventor of the www, Mr. Tim Berners-Lee gave it away to us for free. (For the purest and the idealist amongst you, the internet and it's transmission protocols where initially developed in 1973 by Mr. Vinton Cerf.) So you could argue that it too is over thirty, but for the most part it is considered a new invention.

Our standard of living over the last three decades has increased because of three things. The development of, and refinement of inventions and ideas that predate 1976 (WWW excepted) which greatly improved productivity. Second; China and other low wage countries taking over most of the worlds manufacturing. And, the world wide web's ability to lower barriers to the exchange of information of all types.

Real wages adjusted for inflation have not increased. The low cost producing countries are feeling the pains of their people getting tired of being the low cost producers. The efficiencies gained from technology seem to be reaching their limits. Companies are now looking at ways to eliminate the most expensive part of producing anything, the cost of labor.

This lack of invention has caused some interesting results. 40% + of the tax payers in the US get more from the IRS then they paid in. A large percentage of the workers consider themselves to be under employed. Countries with large young populations (under thirty) have great dissatisfaction amongst these young populations because of a lack of employment and economic opportunity causing unrest. Developed countries are struggling with national debt loads and the legacy cost of supporting their older populations that they made retirement promises to.

The young, well educated and informed people of the world are demanding more opportunity to improve their standards of living. We need some major new inventions. Something akin to electricity, autos, trains, plastics, telephones, radios, TV, satellites, space travel, steel, antibiotics, radiation, computers, or the transistor. Some major world changing inventions are needed to improve peoples standards of living and get job growth as well as real wages rising.