Progress?

Last Friday over 5,000 flights across the world had to be cancelled because of an alleged single computer misstep by a single company.

A few weeks ago, I left my house to run errands in my neighborhood. After a few minutes, I realized I had forgotten my iPhone, and a deep feeling of dread came upon me should I have an accident and need to call someone.

My landscaper did some extra work for me and called ten days later to ask if I was happy with the work and, if so, then why hadn’t I paid their invoice? I told her that since they automatically bill my credit card for everything they do as soon as they do it, I saw the invoice but ignored doing anything with it. She responded that they sent the invoice since they would add 3.5% for card payments, and figured I would want to save that charge by mailing them a check. They never told me anything about that, so I assumed it would be charged to my card as usual. I had no reason to think they would add a charge since there were no additional charges for their regular services.

Whatever we do, computer usage has become ubiquitous, and we take everything it does for us for granted…almost without any thought.

Some facts. On January 25, 1959, the first commercial jet flew from NY International Airport (today’s JFK) to LAX in 6 hours. Today, the flight time for that same route is also 6 hours. There has been no progress in terms of the flight time. However, there has been significant progress in engineering that reduced fuel and other costs. In 1959, a round-trip coach ticket cost about $250, equivalent to about $1,800 in today’s money, and there were no extra charges. Today, it is possible to find a ticket for pretty much that same $250, and even with extras, it would still be substantially cheaper than the equivalent inflation-driven $1,800 cost. So that’s a big deal. However, in 1959, you could show up at the boarding gate 10 or 15 minutes before flight time, and the delay in taking off was almost nonexistent. Today, you need to show up two hours before your scheduled departure to go through security, and then hope there are no delays boarding, sitting on the runway, or circling before landing. That’s a cost in time lost, wear and tear on us, and anxiety wondering if the delay in arriving would be reasonable. Progress?

Pre-cellular phones, i.e., before 1990, my biggest worry was that I would not have change if I had to make a pay phone call. I used to tape some dimes and quarters to a card I carried in my wallet for such emergencies. Now I get worried sick if I need to drive 10 minutes from home without my cell phone. Progress? By the way, I have always enjoyed taking photos and always carried a camera. The big problem was that I could not take more than one or two pictures of a subject because the film was for 24 photos, developing costs were not so cheap, and the process took a week. Today, my iPhone has replaced my camera, and I can take 20 pictures of a subject, choose the best one and delete the rest. This gets me some pretty great photos. Plus, I no longer have to carry an extra camera, extra film, flash attachment and bulbs, and wait for the pictures to be developed to see if I have a keeper. One modern problem is choosing the best photo and deleting the others takes time, so I usually skip the deleting, but then I fill up my storage with photos I don’t need. Progress?

When I lived in a Manhattan apartment, I had no concerns about a lawn and landscaping. When I moved into my first house, my first purchase was a lawn mower. Today, I don’t do any of that and outsource it, and am fortunate not to have to be concerned about the cost. That is progress!

Comment: My Memoirs as a CPA book has been published and is available in Kindle and print editions at amazon.com. Buy it, read it and enjoy it!