No matter what we do to make a living, we’re operating in a bubble. Bubbles grow, and eventually collapse. We may describe our own bubble as one of many bubbles in Bubbleville.
The Pony Express was a short-lived bubble. It was punctured by the higher speed and lower costs of the Telegraph Bubble. That was punctured by the Telephone Bubble. We all have this to say about our own, bubble: “I hope my bubble lasts until I retire, and then stays inflated long enough to pay my pension.”
Each of us works and lives in some sort of a bubble. Those unfortunate enough to have lived in the Detroit Bubble have seen in collapsing for several decades. People in the Coal Miners Union Bubble have seen it punctured by the Nuclear Reactor Bubble, the fully-automated Continuous Miner Bubble, and the Strip-mining Bubble.
If we’re aware of the fragile nature of bubbles, we can get some idea of how stable our bubble is. And, we can get an idea of how long the collapse may take. The Post Office Bubble is finally breaking, having been punctured by the world wide web and instant messaging. It has taken decades!
The Post Office can touch every house in America in one day. The internet can touch every house is the world(that is connected) in minutes. It’s nice to have progressed as a people this far, but lots of jobs will be lost in the transition and I’m sure it will not be pleasant.