Human Capital Issues and Information Technology

Abstract

Local technological applications and their implications for human welfare depend not only on the most proximal environment, but also upon successively larger embedded social structures. In a world with a complex international division of labor, events in distant countries now intimately affect our nation, just as the states and cities where we live shape the social institutions in which we work, which in turn determine our daily quality of life. The national output, our indebtedness as a nation, the shift from federal to local responsibilities, over-bureaucratization, and the fast-paced technology of the mega-institutions where our livelihoods are made essentially impact the quality of our lives. We elaborate these themes in ensuing pages, working from the most macroscopic or global level to the most microscopic, or local, level of social organization. We tie our discussion to data on international, national, and state-level trends, and we explore a single, but representative local case, which documents the impact of these mega-forces on an educational institution.