Letter: Gadgets are our undoing

The assessment of the "gadget generation" that "new technologies have improved our quality of life" is ludicrous ["The gadget generation," News, Aug. 30]. While we are all marveling at high-def TVs, smartphones, tablets and Nooks, the computer industry is hard at work perfecting new ways to increase productivity and profit for business and industry. Unfortunately, increasing productivity and profit generally translates to shedding labor costs.

The result of this is becoming increasingly evident with unemployment and home foreclosures. As time passes, it is becoming painfully obvious that our children will not be better off than their parents.

Under the auspices of greed, corruption and technology, we are well on the way to our Orwellian destiny: an elite ruling class, a modest supporting class and a vast underclass. In their self-centered neglect of consequences for the future, the "me generation" has given birth to the "de-generation."

Robert Capraro, Bayside