The Ink Fades on a Profession as India Modernizes

As the conduit connecting service providers and consumers grows transparent, middlemen lose jobs. Illiteracy once guaranteed business for letter writers, but a growing economy that provides the resources for education, and affordable cell phone services has left letter writers jobless. This development appears to harm middlemen, but the jobs that technological advances generate more than compensate for this harm. These new jobs are snapped up by fresh blood – often the offspring of these middlemen – hence the effects of this technological transformation balance out. Even letter writers themselves have embraced the technology of cell phones, the very agent that robbed them of their jobs. To some extent, picking up the phone to call loved ones engenders a similar sort of care and affection that each sealed letter once enclosed. – YaleGlobal