Cost makes all the difference. In the 1980's, a long-distance phone call was still a big expense. Being in a big city like New York gave you substantially more access to information than being in the rural USA. Knowledge of skills and techniques were siloed within big firms and academia, and sourcing goods would require the discovery of either local retail, or a phone or mail-order service. It's astounding that anything got done with such high costs of doing business.
Now we think nothing of calling somewhere, as long as somewhere is "within civilization" - even if it's a materially poor, remote area. It's easy to find goods online, even relatively obscure ones. And if we have a question about a specialized field, we can usually find some online source that can point us in the right direction.
What we haven't really done yet is reorganize the economy to make good use of all these new efficiencies. We still manufacture and market as before, just using some additional channels.
Now we think nothing of calling somewhere, as long as somewhere is "within civilization" - even if it's a materially poor, remote area. It's easy to find goods online, even relatively obscure ones. And if we have a question about a specialized field, we can usually find some online source that can point us in the right direction.
What we haven't really done yet is reorganize the economy to make good use of all these new efficiencies. We still manufacture and market as before, just using some additional channels.