Charlie Stross wonders about what an Internet-age recession is going to look like.
We’ve never actually seen a true global recession in a Web 2.0 world. What’s it going to look like? How is it going to differ from a recession in a pre-internet world? Is it going to accelerate the hollowing-out of the retail high street as economy-conscious shoppers increasingly move to online shopping and comparison systems like Froogle? Are we going to see homeless folks not only living in their cars but telecommuting from them, using pay-as-you-go 3G cellular modems, cheap-ass Netbooks, and rented phone numbers to give the appearance of still having a meatspace office? Is the increasing performance curve of consumer electronics going to give way to a deflationary price war as embattled producers try to hold on to market share as Moore’s Law cuts the ground away from beneath their feet?
This is disingenuous: “We’ve never actually seen a true X in a Web 2.0 world” applies to a vast range of X‘s. But setting that aside, let’s add a few more questions. How will the fact that the recession is coinciding with the retiring of the boomers affect things? What about the (independent and permanent) increase in energy prices? How will this influence agriculture? (Pumping water is expensive.) Will we all move south, live in cities, become vegetarians, and work from home (except for nurses and teachers)?