Review - The End of Work: The Decline of the Global Labor Force and the Dawn of the Post-Market Era.
By Jeremy Rifkin
Rifkin draws an apocalyptic picture of all that could go wrong with global society as rapidly increasing numbers of jobs are replaced by computerization, automation and robotics. I felt somewhat sceptical, as the book was written nearly ten years ago, and I haven't noticed dramatic increases in unemployment. Yet the trend is there, and it certainly would be wise to prepare for possible consequences.
Rifkin's thesis is: "The wholesale substitution of machines for workers is going to force every nation to rethink the role of human beings in the social process. Redefining opportunities and responsibilities for millions of people in a society absent of mass formal employment is likely to be the single most pressing social issue of the coming century."
Rifkin writes about the increasing gap between menial labor and knowledge workers, and points out that "... all three of the traditional sectors of the economy -- agriculture, manufacturing, and service -- are experiencing technological displacement, forcing millions onto the unemployment rolls."
Is there any hope? Rifkin sees some in the third sector or non-profit organizations, work sharing, shorter work weeks, taxation policies, and so on. He considers the utopian view that technology will solve everything.
Yet his conclusion is that "the end of work could spell a death sentence for civilization as we have come to know it. The end of work could also signal the beginning of a great social transformation, a rebirth of the human spirit. The future lies in our hands."
Well, the future has always been in our hands, though perhaps it is more so now than earlier in our history.
Do we know where we're going to?
Posted by Paul at December 20, 2004 01:13 PM