Rehctub, let me give you an example of the sort of difference that
the net can make. I saw an interview the other day with a twenty
something girl in the US, who in her city set up a website, where
people can go to do stuff or have stuff done. Only condition, they
need a clean police record. You want your garden tidied, house
cleaned, shopping done, drycleaning picked up, gutters cleaned,
any frigging thing really that you can imagine. People bid to do it.

Now lets say you unemployed, part time employed, married and home
but want a few hours work and some cash. You bid for what you'd like
to do, to fill in your spare time.

She is now spreading her idea to a dozen US cities as its taken off,
backed by some venture capital.

Now let me tell you, at 20, to make a few extra bob, I would have
been on that website like a flash. At 60, with a crook back, I would
hire people to do stuff around here tomorrow, if I could find them.

How much economic activity do you think that just that website can
create?

On a related issue. I used to buy all my books through a major local chain but in recent years have gone over to Amazon. It is so much more convenient being able to read/compare the reviews, scan related texts: “people who bought this also bought that”. Be given the option of Kindle or paper formats.And have it all delivered to your home.

From my perspective Amazon kills traditional book stores–its hard to believe that some years ago Amazon's business model was questioned and it's prospects deemed poor.

"""
Current moves, user pays, to charge for on line news services, are not growing fast enough to suit the Murdock's, but will, as soon as the free stuff is stopped.
"""

And these are the people that bribe corrupt politicians to bring in oppressive rules so that they may profit while we lose!(stop the free stuff) And the journos are right behind them because they pay their wages. Trust none of them, they're all low lifes that will do anything to shut down independent free thinkers who now because of the internet can voice their opinions and have their opinions reviewed and questioned by their peers. Just like happens on this forum every single day!

"""
You're right raw mustard, except, these jobs you speak of have already been created, while news papers are still a way of everyday life.
"""

It was the same when fridges were invented. As more people stopped getting their ice from the ice works, the ice workers went to work for the fridge makers. The problem today in this country is the fridge makers are in another country. And you can't work in most fields without a piece of paper to say you can; however getting that piece of paper can be next to impossible or unaffordable these days, bureaucracy has seen to that!

The other problem these days is choosing a new field to re-educate into that won't disappear or be shipped off to another country before you finish your re-education.
As Yabby pointed out:
"""
So if your kids learn to be computer programmers/IT workers, their
future is assured.
""
Not so fast, Yabby! Most of those jobs have gone to India. So, sure your kids future is taken care of as long as they want to work in India for a dollar a day!

A word of caution, buy only from folk you know are true honest traders on line.
Do not bring up they all can not be trusted,it will not wash.
Raw Mustard, think I went too far there, in fact just as Google is free now, advertisers pay for us, the biggest will always be so.
I agree we must confront the self interest of politicians right down to those wanting to sell us some thing.
In starting the thread I saw no doubt change has come, and will continue.
Here local not suburban villages are linked to activity centers, and served better than any local news paper ever has.
In fact locals, suffering from falling sales/advertising are struggling to get readership.
I know, out there now, some have thoughts on what the changes will be.
Some like yabby,s link, will become very rich by using those ideas.

*Most of those jobs have gone to India.*

Not really, Rawmustard. When they ring you from a call centre in
India, do you rush to buy?

I just had a quick look on Seek. 13500 IT jobs in Sydney alone,
waiting to be filled. Another 9500 jobs in Melbourne. When our slack
Australian retailers eventually get off their arses, they might be
forced to go to India, as city based Australians would seemingly
rather flip burgers then become qualified in something useful.

It's not about buying, Yabby. It's about consultants in Australia already offering IT services from India for a fraction of the cost of employing people here and the Indians are damn good at it. Not that I hold that against them mind you, good luck to them. I remember reading 80% of Windows OS is now programmed in India. Hmm, maybe that's why it's so shite hehehe :~P

As soon as bandwidth in Oz is improved via the NBN, you watch jobs and services disappear from here. There's absolutely no reason to run your IT dept from Australia now or have your website developed here if you know what you're doing. Unix/Linux is 100% administrable remotely. As too is programming.

I've witnessed first hand peoples lives destroyed in one month as the Chinese copy a program that took years to develop and offer it up for a fraction of the cost it took to do it for here.

As time goes on and bandwidth and technology improve, those remaining jobs will go overseas as well, it's already happening!