What Has Technology Done For You? Nothing!

"Quality of Life" What do you think of when you hear that phrase? Most people think of money. So the million dollar question is, does technology improve the quality of our lives? No! It makes us more efficient, but does greater efficiency mean more money and cheaper goods? With the way the world is structured today, again the answer is no.

By itself, an increase in efficiency sounds positive, but consider it in a real life situation. Let's say 20 years ago, the efficiency of a computer programmer was 10 times less than it is today, and in 1 year, 1 programmer could create 5 programs. That would mean that today, that same programmer can create 50 programs in 1 year because of the increase in efficiency, but is that programmer making more money? As newer technology is becoming available to more people, those people are expected to produce more in the same amount of time and for the same amount of money. This is called inflation, and because of it, the value of efficiency is decreasing. Due to inflation, the programmer is not being paid any more then he was 20 years ago, yet he is expected to do 10 times more work. So has the quality of life for the programmer increased? Obviously not.

Others may argue that as we are becoming more efficient, we are producing more products, which drive the prices down. Not really. The market has a knack for always being at the top of the efficiency scale (much like new technology). So let's say that the cost of producing cars has dropped dramatically because of a newer, cheaper and more efficient engine that has been invented. You would think that everyone will now have some extra money in their pocket because they are saving money on their automobiles. Unfortunately, that is not the case. The market always knows how much it costs to live in a certain part of the world, so sooner or later it will adjust itself based on the amount of money people are saving. Eventually, people will see a dramatic drop in the size of their paycheck. You cannot be living in Nowhere, Canada and get paid like a Torontonian because the market knows how much it costs for you to live.

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