The Workless Future by James Reed

The social credit writers of the League have been producing some very good work on dealing with the issue of the 'end of work'. Here I simply want to mention that I am seeing more material published on this in the mainstream press, which is no doubt a testing ground for what is to come.
There have been reviews of a new book on this topic by Tim Dunlop, Why the Future is Workless, (New South, 2016). Neo-liberalism combined with robotics has created a new class of people, the “precariat,” to use economist Guy Standing’s term. These people have uncertain part-time or short-term work, and consequently an uncertain future. And the class of the precariat will grow, with Oxford University researchers predicting that 47 percent of existing jobs will disappear in the next 20 years.
As an example, just around the corner, 3D printers might “print” out an entire house!

To deal with this social challenge there will need to be fundamental changes and Dunlop is sympathetic to the idea of a universal basic income. There is no mention of social credit, and the limitations of the basic income scheme have been discussed at this site.
One of the things following from the robotics revolution, ironically enough, is the end of globalism, or at least in part. Jamie Walker, “Robots Help Bring Jobs Back Home,” The Weekend Australian, November 19-20, 2016, p. 15, points out that both cheap energy and robotics will result in more reshoring because robots are cheaper than overseas workers. There will not be, though, many new jobs created, and those that are, will be essentially in getting the intelligent machines to work, if they are lucky, before even they are replaced.
Thus, we can indeed take it that work as we know it has come to an end and any discussion and future planning should proceed from that point.

 

Comments

No comments made yet. Be the first to submit a comment
Already Registered? Login Here
Friday, 29 March 2024

Captcha Image