<story><title>This Tech Bubble Is Bursting</title><url>http://www.wsj.com/articles/this-tech-bubble-is-bursting-1462161662</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>rm999</author><text>Technology isn&amp;#x27;t just an industry - it&amp;#x27;s a way of doing things and is becoming ubiquitous. When people think &amp;quot;tech&amp;quot; they may think of sharing status updates or searching for a restaurant. What about driverless trucks (transportation), gene sequencing (healthcare), industrial robotics (manufacturing), automated warehouses (retail), solar research (energy), farm-specific yield optimization (agriculture)?&lt;p&gt;This stuff is all being driven from within the tech industry, even when it will benefit &amp;quot;other&amp;quot; industries.</text></item><item><author>refurb</author><text>I&amp;#x27;d have to disagree.  It may seem like tech is driving the US economy when you&amp;#x27;re standing in Silicon Valley, but it&amp;#x27;s not even in the top 5.[1]&lt;p&gt;Energy, manufacturing, transportation, healthcare and agriculture have seen the most growth lately.&lt;p&gt;Of course tech can play a role in all of those industries, but overall tech is not that big a part of the US economy.&lt;p&gt;[1]&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.investopedia.com&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;investing&amp;#x2F;042915&amp;#x2F;5-industries-driving-us-economy.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.investopedia.com&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;investing&amp;#x2F;042915&amp;#x2F;5-indu...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>andersen1488</author><text>These journalists, along with most people outside the tech industry, fail to see the overall picture. 4 out of 5 of the largest companies on earth are tech firms, and none of them were even close to that position 10 years ago. Software runs the world and tech companies are the single largest driver of the modern American economy, making the overall pool of companies that may go belly up at any given time larger. Public consciousness just hasn&amp;#x27;t caught up to that fact yet since it happened so fast.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>lambda</author><text>I think one problem with this discussion is what is encompassed by &amp;quot;tech&amp;quot;. If you just use &amp;quot;tech&amp;quot; as an abbreviation for &amp;quot;technology&amp;quot;, then sure, tech has been driving human civilization for millennia. Agriculture? Buildings? Roads? Language? Writing? Man, those are some technologies that have paid off big time.&lt;p&gt;If by &amp;quot;tech&amp;quot;, you mean &amp;quot;high tech&amp;quot;, well, that encompasses an awful lot of different things, and of course the goalposts are constantly moving as today&amp;#x27;s high-tech becomes tomorrow&amp;#x27;s tech becomes the next day&amp;#x27;s obsolete.&lt;p&gt;If by &amp;quot;tech&amp;quot; you mean computer hardware, software, networking, and networked services, then sure, that&amp;#x27;s a pretty important driver of some other advances, but likewise advances in other fields help to drive this as well. Globalization, shipping, mining, energy, RF engineering, photonics, aerospace, and so on all play into this, and all both benefit from and contribute to the success of computer hardware, software, networking, and networked services. But just because this form of high tech can help with other fields, doesn&amp;#x27;t mean it&amp;#x27;s driving the economy. It may be increasing productivity to a certain degree, but there is an awful lot of the economy which is only minimally influenced by these kinds of things.</text></comment>
<story><title>This Tech Bubble Is Bursting</title><url>http://www.wsj.com/articles/this-tech-bubble-is-bursting-1462161662</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>rm999</author><text>Technology isn&amp;#x27;t just an industry - it&amp;#x27;s a way of doing things and is becoming ubiquitous. When people think &amp;quot;tech&amp;quot; they may think of sharing status updates or searching for a restaurant. What about driverless trucks (transportation), gene sequencing (healthcare), industrial robotics (manufacturing), automated warehouses (retail), solar research (energy), farm-specific yield optimization (agriculture)?&lt;p&gt;This stuff is all being driven from within the tech industry, even when it will benefit &amp;quot;other&amp;quot; industries.</text></item><item><author>refurb</author><text>I&amp;#x27;d have to disagree.  It may seem like tech is driving the US economy when you&amp;#x27;re standing in Silicon Valley, but it&amp;#x27;s not even in the top 5.[1]&lt;p&gt;Energy, manufacturing, transportation, healthcare and agriculture have seen the most growth lately.&lt;p&gt;Of course tech can play a role in all of those industries, but overall tech is not that big a part of the US economy.&lt;p&gt;[1]&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.investopedia.com&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;investing&amp;#x2F;042915&amp;#x2F;5-industries-driving-us-economy.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.investopedia.com&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;investing&amp;#x2F;042915&amp;#x2F;5-indu...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>andersen1488</author><text>These journalists, along with most people outside the tech industry, fail to see the overall picture. 4 out of 5 of the largest companies on earth are tech firms, and none of them were even close to that position 10 years ago. Software runs the world and tech companies are the single largest driver of the modern American economy, making the overall pool of companies that may go belly up at any given time larger. Public consciousness just hasn&amp;#x27;t caught up to that fact yet since it happened so fast.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>zadig</author><text>I think the point the previous commentator was trying to make is the distinction between the &amp;#x27;tech industry&amp;#x27; a la Silicon Valley versus other industries - and it would be unfair to credit the former with any innovation in the latter. Pretty much every industry since we have invented fire has grown through advances in &amp;#x27;tech&amp;#x27;. So what makes a firm a &amp;#x27;tech&amp;#x27; firm - in this day and age it&amp;#x27;s hard to say, and I&amp;#x27;m not sure if it&amp;#x27;s a useful exercise.</text></comment>