And it's hopeful ... but with a pretty big 'Gotcha'
The World will need us to Work - there is simply no way as large and capable a workforce as in the US can be idle without hurting the World Economy.
US workers are innovators: whether it's to make our jobs easier, or to make more money, or both, we tend to create new ways to do things rather than repeat the same process over and over. This can increase productivity which means we are valuable.
We Live to Work. Not all of us, thankfully, since that would be boring, but American culture is still immersed in Work-as-Identity-as-Life. This keeps us working all the time - not always efficiently, but all the time, and that can boost productivity, which makes boardroom work metrics presentations look good.
So American Workers will still be needed ...
But here's that Gotcha. Actually there are three:
(1) Our schools may not be capable of producing enough well-rounded, capable people equipped to be flexible in the future workplace. And flexibility will be required.
(2) There may not be enough jobs available for every willing US worker. And worse, there may not be a viable support system for those who want to work, but can't find employment (and yes, I do mean even less viable than we have now ... )
and;
(3) The jobs we do get may be harmonized over a global economy, and may not support our accustomed standard of living. (There are good aspects to this, though. Think about it.)
The Future of Jobs in America is both bright and stark. Bright because there will be a need for us in the Global Economy; stark because there won't be Jobs for Everyone, and the employed will be judged and compensated on a balanced world scale, with all the changes that implies.
Good Luck to Us All
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2 comments:
Good luck to us all, indeed.
I agree with your analysis.
So pretty much zero growth, at best, for a generation or two?
World-wide?
SInce we are all now in this boiling frog pot together?
The tyranny of the lowest hourly wage?
Add to that the pressure from technology putting millions of taxi cab drivers and truckers out of work when automation hits their "industry". I've been brooding about this for ten years, but no one takes me seriously. Have they not seen a cruise missile function? A Predator drone? The Google auto-car? DARPA autonomous vehicle races? Any number of driving aids on high end autos? (Lane control, braking, anti-roll?)
How many more surly taxicab drivers and sleepy truckers will it take for the corporations to move from organic-based computers that can walk from vehicle to vehicle (human driver), to a silicon-based systems that are hard-mounted to each vehicle and run 24-hours a day?
We could well be entering another Ned Lud era, a spasm of violence directed at the machines.
I fear you may be right about the loss of human relevance in an increasingly machine-operated technocracy. Boiling Frog Pot or pool of Liquid Nitrogen, either way it's not going to be pleasant...
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