I've recently read a number of articles about inequality and, for lack of a better term, modernization--by which I mean globalization and the advance of technology.
Part of this is due to simple self interest, as more and more academics are wondering if we'll eventually be replaced by a combination of online lecturers from the professorial elite and teaching assistants located in places like India. Will students soon have the option to listen to the lectures of Stanford professors while getting detailed feedback from teaching assistantsliving in India? The part of me that wants to keep teaching--and earning money--into my seventies hopes not. But it is certainly conceivable that such courses would be both better and much cheaper than many if not most of the courses now offered at colleges and universities.
Economists seem to be divided on whether or not technological efficiency leads to a net job gain or loss. But some are suggesting that most of the job losses of the Great Recession will not be recovered, that the combination of technological change and moving jobs offshore means that a smaller and smaller proportion of us will be able to make a decent living--even as our economy creates cell phones and, perhaps, college courses, that are both cheaper and better.
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