Writing for The Futurist (A Magazine of Forecasts,
Trends, and Ideas about the Future), James H. Lee admits that “the future of
work is less secure and less stable than it was” and persistently seeks
examples of human employment likely to survive our ever-advancing technology. See:
To help us understand the problem, he points out
that farming provided jobs for half our population 100 years ago and for just
3% today. He clearly understands that automation is now replacing workers and
paychecks and will continue to do so. But he suggests the postindustrial jobless
seek retraining so that they can earn a living writing code, designing
websites, preparing tax forms, or doing photography, personal training, life
consulting, and massage.
I have no special knowledge of automation and
robotry, but I know some robots now perform delicate surgery and I am guessing that some others will be
designed to wash and cut hair or to handle informational tasks like financial
and management consultation and every kind of coaching.
Even if little else, James H. Lee’s article helps to
light up our attention to income
opportunities for all the future jobless who hope to continue being consumers
of good and services increasingly being produced by software and hardware that
invents, designs, creates, and delivers more and more kinds of goods and
services. Including massage and life coaching.
Without customers, what’s the point of creating
goods and services? Without markets, what is capitalism? Without capitalism,
what is democracy?
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