America’s Magazine published an article about Life without Work. Click here to read.
The industrial revolution brought major changes into world economies. Workers received wages for industrial labor, and industry became the major source of income for large percentages of the population.
Economic activity today is no longer creating large numbers of industrial jobs nor are industrial jobs a source of increasing income for wager earners in these industries. Indeed, there is something of a perfect storm developing: in the late 60s and early 70s, minorities and women entered the labor pool in much larger numbers; the opening of labor markets in the 80s and 90s (primarily India and China) added billions to the labor poor, resulting in the transfer of “middle class” jobs from higher to lower industrial wage markets, and technology is rapidly automating and eliminating many of even those jobs; indeed, automation is now impacting job in the service sectors as well. Industrial jobs as a means of producing income growth and stability to middle class workers is disappearing. In fact, according to Frey and Osborne, 47% of U.S. jobs are at high risk of being eliminated over the next two decades. Moreover, as the global labor force grows to an estimated 3.5 billion in 2030, accelerating automation will throw hundreds of millions out of work at a time when there already exists a 1.8 billion shortfall in formal jobs across the globe.