The microeconomic picture of the U.S. has changed immensely since
1973, and the trends are proving to be consistently downward for
the nation's high school graduates and high school drop-outs.  "Of all
the reasons given for the wage squeeze - international competition,
technology, deregulation, the decline of unions and defense cuts -
technology is probably the most critical.  It has favored the
educated and the skilled," says M. B. Zuckerman, editor-in-chief of
U.S. News & World Report (7/31/95).  Since 1973, wages adjusted
for inflation have declined by about a quarter for high school
dropouts, by a sixth for high school graduates, and by about 7% for
those with some college education.  Only the wages of college
graduates are up.

	Of the fastest growing technical jobs, software engineering
tops the list. Carnegie Mellon University reports, "recruitment of it's
software engineering students is up this year by over 20%."  All
engineering jobs are paying well, proving that highly skilled labor is
what employers want!  "There is clear evidence that the supply of
workers in the [unskilled labor] categories already exceeds the
demand for their services," says L. Mishel, Research Director of
Welfare Reform Network. In view of these facts, I wonder if these
trends are good or bad for society.  "The danger of the information
age is that while in the short run it may be cheaper to replace
workers with technology, in the long run it is potentially self-
destructive because there will not be enough purchasing power to
grow the economy," M. B. Zuckerman.  My feeling is that the trend
from unskilled labor to highly technical, skilled labor is a good one! 
But, political action must be taken to ensure that this societal
evolution is beneficial to all of us.  "Back in 1970, a high school
diploma could still be a ticket to the middle income bracket, a nice
car in the driveway and a house in the suburbs.  Today all it gets is a
clunker parked on the street, and a dingy apartment in a low rent
building," says Time Magazine (Jan 30, 1995 issue).  

	However, in 1970, our government provided our children with a
free education, allowing the vast majority of our population to earn
a high school diploma.  This means that anyone, regardless of family
income, could be educated to a level that would allow them a
comfortable place in the middle class.  Even restrictions upon child
labor hours kept children in school, since they are not allowed to work
full time while under the age of 18. This government policy was
conducive to our economic markets, and allowed our country to
prosper from 1950 through 1970.  Now, our own prosperity has
moved us into a highly technical world, that requires highly skilled
labor.  The natural answer to this problem, is that the U.S.
Government's education policy must keep pace with the demands of
the highly technical job market.  If a middle class income of 1970
required a high school diploma, and the middle class income of 1990
requires a college diploma, then it should be as easy for the children
of the 90's to get a college diploma, as it was for the children of
the 70's to get a high school diploma.  This brings me to the issue
of our country's political process, in a technologically advanced world.

 	The advance of mass communication is natural in a
technologically advanced society.  In our country's short history, we
have seen the development of the printing press, the radio, the
television, and now the Internet; all of these, able to reach millions
of people.  Equally natural, is the poisoning and corruption of these
medias, to benefit a few.

From the 1950's until today, television has been the preferred
media.  Because it captures the minds of most Americans, it is the
preferred method of persuasion by political figures, multinational
corporate advertising, and the upper 2% of the elite, who have an
interest in controlling public opinion.  Newspapers and radio
experienced this same history, but are now somewhat obsolete in the
science of changing public opinion.  Though I do not suspect television
to become completely obsolete within the next 20 years, I do see
the Internet being used by the same political figures, multinational
corporations, and upper 2% elite, for the same purposes.  At this
time, in the Internet's young history, it is largely unregulated, and
can be accessed and changed by any person with a computer and a
modem; no license required, and no need for millions of dollars of
equipment.  But, in reviewing our history, we find that newspaper,
radio and television were once unregulated 
too.  It is easy to see why government has such an interest in
regulating the Internet these days.  Though public opinion supports
regulating sexual material on the Internet, it is just the first step
in total regulation, as experienced by every other popular mass
media in our history.  This iswhy it is imperative to educate people
about the Internet, and make it be known that any regulation of it is
destructive to us, not constructive!  I have been a daily user of the
Internet for 5 years (and a daily user of BBS communications for 9
years), which makes me a senior among us.  I have seen the moves to
regulate this type of communication, and have always openly opposed
it.

My feelings about technology, the Internet, and political process are
simple.  In light of the history of mass communication, there is
nothing we can do to protect any media from the "sound byte" or
any other form of commercial poisoning.  But, our country's public
opinion doesn't have to fall into a nose-dive of lies and corruption,
because of it!  The first experience I had in a course on Critical
Thinking came when I entered college.  As many good things as I have
learned in college, I found this course to be most valuable to my
basic education.  I was angry that I hadn't had access to the power
of critical thought over my twelve years of basic education.  Simple
forms of critical thinking can be taught as early as kindergarten.  It
isn't hard to teach a young person to understand the patterns of
persuasion, and be able to defend themselves against them. 
Television doesn't have to be a weapon against us, used to sway our
opinions to conform to people who care about their own prosperity,
not ours.  With the power of a critical thinking education, we can
stop being motivated by the sound byte and, instead we can laugh
at it as a cheap attempt to persuade us.

In conclusion, I feel that the advance of technology is a good trend
for our society; however, it must be in conjunction with advance in
education so that society is able to master and understand
technology.  We can be the masters of technology, and not let it be
the masters of us.










































Bibliography

Where have the good jobs gone?, By: Mortimer B. Zuckerman
        U.S. News & World Report, volume 119, pg 68  

Wealth: Static Wages, Except for the Rich, By: John Rothchild
        Time Magazine, volume 145, pg 60                     

Welfare Reform, By: Lawrence Mishel
        http://epn.org/epi/epwelf.html                   

20 Hot Job Tracks, By: K.T. Beddingfield, R. M. Bennefield, J.
	Chetwynd, 

T. M. Ito, K. Pollack & A. R. Wright
        U.S. News & World Report, volume 119, pg 98