Designing for the Life Span Segment 2
Designing for the Life Span Segment 2 
Previous Slide Next Slide Segment
Index
Home First Slide Last Slide
[D]
Transition & Change in the American Economy in the 20th Century.
Each change in the economic base has become compressed into less time.
The American Agrarian Economy- from the beginning through 1920.
The American Industrial Economy- 1900 through 1975.
Service Economy- 1965 through 1995.
The new economy has yet to peak but its manifestations of electronic communications are rapidly taking shape.
Information Economy- 1980 through 2000.
Listen to the Audio (MP3, 434 KB) or read the transcript:
By the end of the 20th century, America experienced its fourth major change in its economic structure by becoming the "information economy." It can be argued that America may have already seen the collapse of that economy by the end of the century. This has been the shortest duration of any economic change of the four that have occurred. In 20 years, computing moved from mainframe to desktop, Arpanet became Internet. Internet companies rose taking in millions if not billions in venture capital only to produce nothing and fail within a few years. A stock market that had increased in value by 400% fell 200% within 6 months. Major Fortune 1000 companies failed and thousands of information technology workers as well as others lost jobs. Retirement funds crashed and thousands, again, were left without resources to sustain a future.
Previous Slide Next Slide Segment
Index
Home First Slide Last Slide