I wonder what the effects of Meta failing would have on society? I can’t think of competing social network for people to migrate to. Would topic forums see a rise in popularity again or would sites like Reddit draw in some of those users.
Yup IMO this is the most interesting question. While admittedly I haven’t been closely following the layoffs taking place this week; those I have read about talk primarily about downsizing non-engineering headcount.
“Take for example steel production. American employment in the industry has fallen by 55% since 1989, while chinese production is now 5 times higher.
...
Looking at the situation more granularly, we see that US steel production has been approximately constant since the early 80s, whereas Chinese steel production didn't ramp up till the 00s, around the same time that the decrease in US steel employment leveled off.”
Do you know of any data sources for this? I’d like to look at other industries as well.