Warner describes the increase in complexity of urban markets with the expansion of the transportation movement from artisan towns to factory towns, rapid technological change (inventions), dependence on national and international economies, large scale poverty. Sounds contemporary. What's the difference?
Something else that Warner described through his description of the three chronological phases of metropolitan development in the United States was an increasing rate of change. In each successive phase of metropolitan development, the pace of change increased to a significant extent. Thus, one difference between the contemporary period and earlier periods is that change in the contemporary period is much more rapid than that experienced in earlier periods. In turn, this rapidity of change means that the contemporary period is characterized by higher uncertainty.
While the pace of change has continued to increase, however, American society has implemented controls through the years that tend to moderate the effects of such change. High level unemployment, as an example, means eight to 10 percent in the contemporary period; however, high level unemployment in earlier periods of development often meant 33 percent of the work force was idle. Further, when workers were idled in much of the earlier period of metropolitan development, they and their families had to beg, borrow from family members, or steal to avoid starvation and having to live in the streets. In the contemporary period, however, unemployment insurance and social welfare services moderate the effects of unemployment. Since 1981, the effectiveness of unemployment insurance and social welfare services has deteriorated because of the political philosophy of the federal Administrations led by Ronald Reagan and George Bush. Both hunger and homelessness have increased in the United States since 1981. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of these systems in the contemp...