Other than that, I would've understood this notion better in the 90's when we were all on dialups. Maybe my perception is skewed growing up and seeing in real-time a picture loading on a website?
Now, even with outdated hardware on an ok connection, even larger sites like WAPO (3MB) loads what I feel like instantly (within 5-10 seconds). If it loaded in 2 seconds or 1 second, I really don't know how that would impact my life in any way.
As long as a site isn't sluggish while you browse around.
I disagree that literacy is all about reading fictional books and I wish we could broaden it a little bit more, even at school.
This might be an odd take, but I never liked reading books and have read very few books in my whole life. I do love to read news articles, forum posts, magazines etc. because the format fits me.
Judging myself by my education level and career I'd say I did just fine without opening a single book.
It's more of an oligopoly than a cartel to be honest. It's more like how the telco industry operates. High barriers to entry with generous subsidies and incentives for the existing few providers.
Why stop there? They should expand it to blockchain, 3d printing, VR and quantum computing to make sure it really tickles the executives' imagination...
Maybe I'm overthinking this, but I see this more of an issue of User Experience / Service Design than anything else.
Physical check-in means you provide your ID / Passport, and a boarding pass is printed by the check-in staff. Most of the work is hidden from you (the employee enters all numbers, clicks all boxes, etc.) so from a service design perspective it's a simple process. However, it's costly, and requires you to stand in line.
Digital check-in is not on the same level, there's no standard across airlines, not one app to do it all. And the process hasn't been simplified at all, all the work has just been delegated to the user. This is not an issue for tech-savvy people who're used of entering forms and using digital tools, but I still believe it's a poor user experience.
Ideally, you'd want a unified digital solution where all you have to do is click one button, scan the RFD chip in your passport and click check-in.
The solution is NOT to bring back cash and manual check-in counters, but to look at it purely from a service design perspective to make it simple and inclusive. Which I'm sure will benefit everyone in the end.
That's not a fair comparison, it would be more like if they run out of samples you can't demand more, or if you've already had 10 you might have to expect them to say no, or if you don't like the toppings, you can't really ask for substitutions.