The reason jobs are lacking relates to a structural shift in human capacity and productivity. Over many hundreds of years we have continuously automated human labor (blue collar work) by passing it off to machines running on fossil fuels. The amount of work a human being can perform in an entire day, compared to what a single gallon of gas can produce in an hour via a functional machine, is something on the order of 1/50th the magnitude of energy. As blue collar jobs vanished, we shifted our cultures to reflect the value of getting an education and getting into a white collar position, which paid better and promised job security. Little did we realize that technology would continue to advance, and that eventually computers—running ever more complex software—would be able to replace a multitude of white collar jobs. Today, getting an education is no guarantee of job security; the jobs previously held by educated humans are being taken over by computers more and more. Its predicted that within 50 years, over 50% of current white collar jobs will be held by computers. And people cant reeducate as fast as a computer can be reprogrammed, so we cant compete with our own technology. The bald fact is this: we have been systematically rendering ourselves obsolete in the workplace...and the jobs are not coming back. This should be GOOD news for humankind, as we are learning how to do more with less effort. However, we still find ourselves bound to an antiquated economic formula that we designed during agrarian times, which values hard work and holds it up as the ONLY means by which human beings can access the fruits of their own society. That worked when people produced the fruits and exchanged their efforts with one another. It does NOT work when machines and computers produce the bulk of the fruits, and a few wealthy individuals own the machines and computers. Eventually we will have to adapt to our own success. We cannot continue to make jobs to make money with no regard for what those jobs are, what damage they do to the environment and the planet, and what were making money FOR. We stand on the cusp of a massive human shift in social behavior. I await that shift with interest, because I suspect it holds the capacity to usher in a golden age for humanity, where creativity, beauty, cooperation, joy, peace and self-actualization become our goals...not just simple survival of the fittest.
Posted on: Wed, 14 May 2014 20:03:48 +0000
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