Reddit reviews The End of Work: The Decline of the Global Labor Force and the Dawn of the Post-Market Era

"I don't understand the American economy. In 15 years they will be selling hamburgers/houses to each other"

Also reminds me of The End of Work by Jeremy Rifkin.

I agree with the first part of this The End of Work:.... , I don't think I'll be around for the second part.

Watch this 60 Minutes segment.

Then read the essay Robotic Nation by Marshall Brain.

If you wish to dive deeper, pick up The End of Work by Jeremy Rifkin.

The conversations about job loss to technology have been going on for decades, it's just now that we're starting to see empirical evidence of it and everybody is starting to take notice.

Yea, it kind of seems like most of us would help the planet by not existing, but I saw something else. Imagine if the world population was now reaching its peak in 2013, but at one billion people instead of 7+. Consumption, pollution, and environmental damage were still growing, but not at toxic levels like they are now. This civilization would not have to learn the lessons we do. They have time. But in the future, the day would still come when they reach disastrous levels. I think I understand what you mean by not knowing what you can do, because it seems like more people is just part of the problem. But beyond the negative impact of just another consumer, we are here to teach us all that the way we've been living is reaching a breaking point. It's not bad that there's overpopulation, it's perfect, because now we have to learn these lessons and evolve. And we can start leading by example by living a lower consumption lifestyle, and showing people we are just as happy.

About the automated and job stuff, I'm also trying to wrap my head around it, stuff like Farewell to Growth, The End of Work. I think once everyone is on board with cooexisting with the environment and lower consumption, we'll be able to handle the questions that come with it, about how we are to live when not everyone has a job.

> Some jobs replaced by automation?

No...not some. Many. Most in the next couple of decades. Read The End of Work by Jeremy Rifkin

I had to read this book in college a long time ago:

https://www.amazon.com/End-Work-Decline-Global-Post-Market/dp/0874778247/

His prediction turned out to be inaccurate at least for the time being. The prediction was that automation due to computers would cause people to lose jobs beginning in the 2000s. This didn't actually happen, but that doesn't mean it still can't happen now.

His solution to the problem was reduce the work week. The work week used to be 80, it was dropped to 60, and then again to 40. They were going to reduce it to 30 during The Great Depression, I believe, but it never went through.

It's a theoretically simple solution, obviously if people can't work as much you'll need to employ more people. The issue though is whether they'll actually be able to make enough on something like, say, 30 hours in order to survive. Automation should theoretically mean cheaper products and a lower cost of living, though. China has a 3D printer that prints out entire houses that sell for $5000 https://www.theguardian.com/technology/video/2014/apr/29/3d-printer-builds-houses-china-video .

Really, though, people have been saying automation is going to cause large-scale unemployment for ages now and it has yet to happen. That book was predicting it two decades ago. We'll just have to wait and see what happens.

The End of Work by Rifkin. It is an interesting read on the subject.

History cannot possibly define potential. The fact that automation hasn't yet ruined the labour market will mean nothing in the future when it does. The end of Work by Jeremy Rifkin is a great read.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU

http://www.amazon.ca/The-End-Work-Decline-Post-Market/dp/0874778247

http://www.amazon.ca/The-Lights-Tunnel-Automation-Accelerating/dp/1448659817

Its really too wide of a concept to provide evidence for in a simple fashion. At the same time it's easy enough to say that large sectors of the economy will be massively downsizing their human resource component while still meeting demand, while other sectors that are also currently meeting all demand don't need more people. Unless some magic new sector comes along to employ people in a way that robots or software can't accomplish, there will be massive structural unemployment.

Read Jeremy Rifkin's book The End of Work.


>From Publishers Weekly
In this challenging report, social activist Rifkin (Biosphere Politics) contends that worldwide unemployment will increase as new computer-based and communications technologies eliminate tens of millions of jobs in the manufacturing, agricultural and service sectors. He traces the devastating impact of automation on blue-collar, retail and wholesale employees, with a chapter devoted to African Americans. While a small elite of corporate managers and knowledge workers reap the benefits of the high-tech global economy, the middle class continues to shrink and the workplace becomes ever more stressful, according to Rifkin.