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Work: An Economic Transformation in Progress
People need to work and people want to work. The new generation of technology which includes robots and artificial intelligence has raised the fear that more and more jobs will be done by machines and not people. There is a strong fear that, contrary to past experience, the new technology will grow the economy without creating new jobs which do not exist today. People are worried that the economy in the future will not provide them with a middle class lifestyle for themselves and for their children. This fear expresses itself as a fear of a widening gap between rich and poor. Many Americans worry the wealthy few will become richer and the unemployed will become more numerous and impoverished. Income inequality is growing and the influence of money in politics is a serious concern. However, income inequality is not the root cause of future technological unemployment created by cascading waves of new technology.
The misperception of the relationship between income inequality in the U.S. and increasing unemployment resulting from the introduction of new technology creates the basis for a specious political narrative of us versus them. Since those with less far outnumber those with more, this conveniently fits within the agenda of the progressive component of the Democratic Party. The real problem is not income disparity but the fear that America will run out of enough high paying jobs to continue to support a thriving, prospering middle class. The real issue is work not income inequality. This problem has nothing to do with the rich becoming richer but rather everyone else becoming poorer. We seem suddenly to have run out of the tide that raises all boats. The rich are only seen as getting too much when everyone else starts getting less and less.
Work not only provides the means to establish and maintain a high quality standard of living. It also serves as the basis for social organization and individual identity. Remunerative employment makes it possible for young people to marry, form new households and raise a family. As a new generation of technology severs the traditional interdependent bond between capital and labor, more and more goods and services will be produced by machines. Fewer and fewer employees will be required. There is no assurance that the new generation of technology will open the way to new opportunities for employment.
Richard F. Kessler has written this book to demonstrate the problem and provide some insightful and creative solutions. The author argues that as new technology drives more and more people from their jobs, the right of every person ready, willing and able to work must become an entitlement. Richard F. Kessler practiced law in Washington D.C. for many years and, having retired, is able to spend a great deal of time thinking about why other people need to work. America is the place where immigrants from all four corners of the world go to have more. In America, each generation expects that the succeeding generation will have more. Government will have to assume increasing responsibility to do what is necessary to make sure that this widely held expectation continues to be satisfied.
The misperception of the relationship between income inequality in the U.S. and increasing unemployment resulting from the introduction of new technology creates the basis for a specious political narrative of us versus them. Since those with less far outnumber those with more, this conveniently fits within the agenda of the progressive component of the Democratic Party. The real problem is not income disparity but the fear that America will run out of enough high paying jobs to continue to support a thriving, prospering middle class. The real issue is work not income inequality. This problem has nothing to do with the rich becoming richer but rather everyone else becoming poorer. We seem suddenly to have run out of the tide that raises all boats. The rich are only seen as getting too much when everyone else starts getting less and less.
Work not only provides the means to establish and maintain a high quality standard of living. It also serves as the basis for social organization and individual identity. Remunerative employment makes it possible for young people to marry, form new households and raise a family. As a new generation of technology severs the traditional interdependent bond between capital and labor, more and more goods and services will be produced by machines. Fewer and fewer employees will be required. There is no assurance that the new generation of technology will open the way to new opportunities for employment.
Richard F. Kessler has written this book to demonstrate the problem and provide some insightful and creative solutions. The author argues that as new technology drives more and more people from their jobs, the right of every person ready, willing and able to work must become an entitlement. Richard F. Kessler practiced law in Washington D.C. for many years and, having retired, is able to spend a great deal of time thinking about why other people need to work. America is the place where immigrants from all four corners of the world go to have more. In America, each generation expects that the succeeding generation will have more. Government will have to assume increasing responsibility to do what is necessary to make sure that this widely held expectation continues to be satisfied.
71 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 25, 2015
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