We’re Heading into a Jobless Future, No Matter What the Government Does [View all]

[Uncle Joe]

Last edited Sat Aug 2, 2014, 09:42 PM - Edit history (1)

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He echoed the words of Peter Diamandis, who says that we are moving from a history of scarcity to an era of abundance. Then he noted that the technologies that make such abundance possible are allowing production of far more output using far fewer people.

On all this, Summers is right. Within two decades, we will have almost unlimited energy, food, and clean water; advances in medicine will allow us to live longer and healthier lives; robots will drive our cars, manufacture our goods, and do our chores.

There won’t be much work for human beings. Self-driving cars will be commercially available by the end of this decade and will eventually displace human drivers—just as automobiles displaced the horse and buggy—and will eliminate the jobs of taxi, bus, and truck drivers. Drones will take the jobs of postmen and delivery people.

The debates of the next decade will be about whether we should allow human beings to drive at all on public roads. The pesky humans crash into each other, suffer from road rage, rush headlong into traffic jams, and need to be monitored by traffic police. Yes, we won’t need traffic cops either.

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https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140731045824-8451-we-re-heading-into-a-jobless-future-no-matter-what-the-government-does?_mSplash=1

There is much more on the link.

My view of the future is not so dire on this subject but it's an interesting article. I do believe this will increase the potential for shorter work weeks.