Fact - technology will continue to be developed and implemented to make most jobs performed by people today obsolete for logical reasons of increased productivity and keeping costs down.
Fact - the speed of technology replacing jobs is far outstripping new jobs being created.
Outcome - unemployment will likely increase in the future, even discounting any economic recessions due to this technological progress.
I'm not referring to some science fiction story, this is actually happening. And I am not against it. Technology has (nearly) always been used to improve our lives and free up our time to think and pursue our dreams and potential. But we need to realize that as we enter in to this new era (which like the dawn of the computer age will likely gain it's own momentum and get faster and faster) we need to think a further down the road and how this will affect people in employment.
As this article argues (http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/wired-success/201109/are-jobs-we-know-them-becoming-obsolete) we already have enough resources to provide for everyone's needs on the planet. So why aren't we doing this?
I think it comes down to the common belief that people are only entitled to resources if they work for it and contribute to society (to be honest I'm one of these people who thinks this, however my thoughts on this have been challenged of late).
Some of the unemployed people may actually be really lazy and may never want to work and be part of society but I have a hunch the the overwhelming majority of unemployed people wish they had a job. And this is where it upsets my way of thinking - when people want to work and prove to society that they deserve a share - and for whatever reason - various disabilities, economic recession, poverty (that contributes to lack of education and being well presented), technology making them redundant - these people all slip through the cracks and are no longer deserving of a slice of the pie.
In the words of the Love Police (a movement, not a band) "If you do not have a job, you are a worthless human being".
And I've been there for only 3 weeks - I was unemployed and I did feel like a worthless human being. I can only imagine the heart ache and then eventual numbness of a person who has been in unemployment for a long period of time. Feeling the gazes of judgement on you and then being ignored totally as a lost cause.
I always feel a storm of mixed feelings when I see a person begging - anger, sympathy, pain, sickness, helplessness. I am angry at them for being there and making me feel confused and upset and never knowing what to do. They make me feel angry because I am fearful about what circumstances happened in their life to put them in that position and what are the chances that that could be me one day for whatever reason? Would people walk around me so easily? How would I ask for help? Would I sit there with a sign? Carry a baby or a dog around? Spend my days playing the same three songs over and over again on my harmonica at the train station?
Then I wonder what the government is doing to help them. Why are there people here stalking the metros and people brush it off as completely normal?
But coming back to the point that there is a universal (from what I have seen) belief that you are only entitled to resources if you are employed and that someone who isn't working for whatever reason is viewed as a "worthless human being" looking for a "hand-out" and who's opinions are worth less than a person who is in employment.
So as unemployment rises does this means that a smaller amount of people will have a say in the governing of the country (hypothetical country not any in particular) and go back to a situation echoing medieval times when only those with land could participate in matters of state? Or will the "99%" as it were, vote to change system in a way that will benefit the growing number of unemployed?
We may have to accept that something needs to change to create new opportunities for the unemployed and I don't mean we stop technological progress. That would be out and out stupid. But this is a situation that we will be confronted with. Something will have to change eventually.
"Resource based economy" is a phrase that is bandied about a lot these days. Some sort of utopic (is that even a word? Utopia -utopic?) vision of a world where resources of food and power are in abundance because of technology. But then with so many jobs no longer filled by people, what do all these unemployed people do exactly with their "free time" and that still does not resolve the question about who gets what of the resources. To think that this would be under the control of a huge "nanny state" has echoes the Chinese Cultural Revolution and the rationing of resources and people's choices were dictated by a government which had their "best interests at heart".
I would hope that enough people would have learnt from history to not replicate this mistake. But the biggest mistake the Chinese people made in allowing this situation to unfold was to not question authority. And this is why FREEDOM OF SPEECH is so critical to uphold. (See the above link on the Love Police - funny and compelling).
Who really knows what will happen, I just hope that we can all be prepared for change when it does eventually come.
Aside note - I realize that this argument has some huge holes in it, especially when it sounds I'm suggesting that people should get used to the fact that there are going to be more unemployed people and that the employed will just have to suck it up and pay for them. I will jump on the other side of this argument in my next blog.
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