Commenter Says: Food, Clothing, and Shelter Are a Given

Yesterday I wrote a piece on whether Web 2.0 matters. The gist of the article was based on comments, which I agree with, by Jim Cramer, suggesting that there is an overly frivolous focus to the web 2.0 world.

One of the comments was from a reader who felt that my perspective was too pessimistic, based on how great the world really is. He said:

"Why the doom and gloom. Don’t underestimate the magical powers of a capitalistic, post-industrial, well post-agrarian society. Because western society is so efficient at food production—only 4-6% of our economy is farming—that means the rest of us (94-96% of our economy) have the luxury of laboring on purely comfort focused endeavors. Just walk around any major city viewing the myriad of businesses and ask yourself which companies are really focused on energy, food production, shelter, health, and education. In the information age, comfort gets the lions share of attention; food, clothing, and shelter are essentially a given."

There are several points I would like to address here. The first is that I do not believe talking about where our attention should be focused for best benefit of our planet and our future is doom and gloom. But that said, I do feel it is important that we look at the world realistically, and some of us may be a bit more optimistic than is called for.

The commenter here says that 4-6% of our economy is farming and the rest have the luxury of laboring on purely comfort focused endeavors. I realize that many of us in the tech world are in fact focused on the business of doing our business, and less so on broader economic or world concerns. We also may, by and large, be well off enough not to realize the economic woes faced by others. And so I thought I would help clarify a few things.

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, our economy expended $13.8413 trillion in 2007. Of that $2.6898 trillion went to government (federal, state, local), $2.1254 trillion went to investments and capital equipment (homes, IT, transportation, industrial equipment), and finally, personal consumption expenditures were $9.7342 trillion. In other words, personal consumption is the stuff that people spend their money on outside of taxes, and conversely it is also how most of our money is made. It is useful to break this down:

Durable goods................... 1078.2
..Motor vehicles and parts...... 441.2
..Furniture and household
...equipment.................... 416.1
..Other......................... 221.0

Nondurable goods................ 2833.2
..Food.......................... 1336.4
..Clothing and shoes............ 370.5
..Gasoline, fuel oil, and other
...energy goods................. 364.2
..Other......................... 762.2

Services........................ 5822.8
..Housing....................... 1465.9
..Household operation........... 531.1
....Electricity and gas......... 226.9
....Other household operation... 304.2
..Transportation................ 358.4
..Medical care.................. 1689.3
..Recreation.................... 402.2
..Other......................... 1375.8

If you will note, only $402 billion out of $9.7 trillion, or around 4% of our economy is entertainment. Most of the money goes to things like medical, food, energy, clothing and shelter. So the idea that most of our economy or jobs are comfort related and food, energy, and shelter are a given, is to say the least, not accurate.

More importantly, energy and food are not only not givens, for many they are becoming unaffordable. While I am sure everyone knows we are in the middle of an energy crisis, some may not know but there is a world wide food crisis as well. The cost of food has increased 46% in the last year, and many more people around the world are starving. This is caused, in large part, by the substantial acceleration in the quality of living in places like China. They are consuming more and the world can't produce enough. The same issues relate to energy, where China is consuming more, and there just is not enough production to support the planet's needs.

None of this is me trying to be doom and gloom. I believe that information technology has and will continue to help us attack the most important problems our planet faces. But if we believe as the commenter does, that there are not looming problems and serious issues to address, we, as a community, can't participate in crafting solutions.

We cannot believe that all that is left to do is amuse ourselves. I do not mean to pick on my commenter, and I do hope he is not offended. But I think it is important for all of us to be properly armed with the facts. Because you can't hit the nail on the head if you can't see the nail.