>So can I conclude that you yourself have seen NO REAL EVIDENCE of a genuine "information economy" (locally or from reading/viewing of developments elsewhere) and that as far as you're concerned it remains at this point a viable concept that has yet to materialize?
I think there are several aspects that have to be analyzed separately.
Are more and more companies using computers to process large amounts of information? Accessing lots of information over the Internet? Actually using this information? Spending money (and human resources) on all this? Let's say, compared with some decades ago. I think the answer is definitely "yes".
Does this translate into more jobs - in total? Probably not. That's what I mean with a "change in emphasis" - compared with 100 years ago, companies are probably spending more money on information - but less on some other things.
Now, the fact that some computer programmers are jobless may simply mean that there have been overly optimistic estimates in this sense.
Difference in opinions hath cost many millions of lives: for instance, whether flesh be bread, or bread be flesh; whether whistling be a vice or a virtue; whether it be better to kiss a post, or throw it into the fire... (from Gulliver's Travels)
