Work in the Software Economy

Work is having a job you get paid for.

My Father's father worked for the Santa Fe Railroad and was an ardent union member. He was a Worker, working for a company, that had no interest in his welfare.

His only alternative was being an itinerant farmer, working other people's land, for a percentage of the profits. Either way, poverty stared him in the face.

My father, and many other men of his generation, become a small businessman, and during the post-war boom economy in the Fifties made enough money to support a family, and send his children to college.

Now, in 2020, I have retired from writing Software. and have time to reflect on how much our world has changed. One thing that has changed is the Nature of Work and the Economy.

This changed during the period 1980-2010 when Software became dominant.

Few people are now Workers. at jobs doing things. There is now little money for this. But Microsoft, Apple, Google, and Amazon have money coming out of their ears - and plenty of high-paying jobs.

These companies did not exist fifty years ago, but they now control what goes on. They provide the tools everyone needs.