The global economy is currently faced with an unprecedented shift in the nature of work. This phenomenon has been occasioned by the overwhelming fascination and obsession of scientists’ with automation. Consequently, the substitution of human labor with automated machines is inevitable (Thompson, 2015). There has been a gradual progress in technological development in various sectors. The earliest form of change took place when people shifted from subsistence to industrial farming. This was followed by the industrial revolution, during which factories emerged. Presently, automation and globalization are kicking at our doorsteps ( Stiglitz, 2006). Throughout these periods, jobs increase at an alarming rate. However, without much notice, something else is happening; a world of technological unemployment is setting in. Scientists and software engineers are taking people out of their workplaces resulting in a steady and permanent decline of jobs in some key sectors. Based on this, there is an overwhelming fear that machines might kick people out of employment (Thompson, 2015). This is as opposed to the norm. Researchers have studied this phenomenon in a bid to provide direction. The most critical questions in this respect include whether or not a world without work is imaginable; what the repercussions of this be; and lastly, the impacts of this shift on personal income, labor, consumption, education, and social interaction. This paper seeks to explore the existing knowledge on these questions in a bid to understand the future of work.
Personal Income
Automation in the workplace is projected to alter both the employees' social lives as well as their capacity to earn. While it is justifiable economically, the use of machines might result in life-changing, yet subtle damages. Working in a team ensures a steady income and is a source of motivation for the employees. Automation will therefore not only break this social perspective but also result in economic hardships. The latter applies to those whose positions will be taken over by machines. In Four Future, Frase (2015) focused on the means by which people obtain income and produce goods. He also sought to understand the activities that bring purpose to people’s lives. His work, therefore, sought to understand work. The author supposes that the society will be pushed beyond capitalism due to threats to the environment as well as advancements in technology. He explores the future of four societal characteristics which include rentism, exterminism, communisms and socialism in light of the world's immediate changes.
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Currently, most employees are undertaking tasks that would be considered ‘tedious' in technological terms. These functions will be replaced by machines with time resulting in the loss of jobs ( Metz, 2015 ) . While sectors such as healthcare require the physical presence of professionals, in the banking sector, cashiers can be replaced by machines. Computerized machines are known to have higher levels of accuracy and can work for long hours. The use of such systems results in more revenue for the respective firms but work against employees, since some are replaced by the machines. On the other hand, those who remain might be subjected to pay cuts owing to reduced workload and fewer hours worked.
According to Svendsen (2008), the impacts of unemployment go beyond the loss of income. Those who lose their jobs are more likely to suffer from physical and mental ailments. On the other hand, in his article, Thompson (2015), proved that presence of work ensures that the wellbeing of people is assured. In some instances, absence has resulted in various social ills. Against this backdrop, a world without work will be detrimental.
Social interaction
Social interaction forms the basis of life and is a crucial component of development. Bonding with friends and family is vital for holistic societal advancement. Automation will result in shifts in the daily schedules of employees. One of the effects is the increased free time for previously busy people. While this might appear positive from the outset, research has proven that individuals with a lot of free time end up wasting most of it. This is through sleeping, gaming, exploring social media and surfing the internet as opposed to doing meaningful things such as innovating. In the U.S, most people feel guilty for being idle since its society is wired to work. Hence, loss of work, in this case, would be highly detrimental.
The second effect of automation is altered collective creativity (Thompson, 2015). Advancement in technology has improved the means of production but resulted in reduced communal engagement of people. While in the past most achievements were made through shared efforts, this is not the case in the age of automation. Presently, the workforce in an automated environment can be described as being ‘together’ and ‘apart’ at the same time. This is because machines have broken the need for interaction. This is a tremendous blow to both individual and societal growth. Although machines are created to enhance productivity and increase efficiency, communal engagement at work is equally important.
The detrimental effects of lack of work were evident in Youngstown as elaborated by Thompson, (2015). Insecurity and failure to earn a living forced people to alienate themselves from the rest of the world. For men who were used to working, joblessness affected them as well as their families. Some were forced to indulge in drug abuse as a means of escaping the reality. Consequently, an increase in the number of criminal incidences led to the opening of more prisons to accommodate the increasing number of criminals. This phenomenon is likely in the future if automation results in the loss of jobs for previously engaged people.
Education
Education has become a key determinant of success in the 21 st century. This is u nlike in the past when learning was optional . Due to advancement in technology, most workplaces are demanding employees with decent academic background s ( Svendsen, 2008 ) . Consequently, most job vacancies currently require that potential employees are technologically savvy. The existing employees on the other hand have an obligation to evaluate their skills and periodically attend training sessions so as to remain relevant and fit in these companies. Regarding education, the impacts of automation are 2-prong. First, the number of employees joining Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to advance their knowledge is increasing. Secondly, there is an overwhelming pressure on HEIs to deliver quality education so as to ensure that all graduates are in a position to interact with and use existing and emerging technologies.
T he number of HEIs has increased globally . Likewise, most of these institutions are consistently reorienting their curricula into ‘technologically smart’ ones. Despite these changes, the HEIs doing this in most countries cannot satisfy the demand. Thus, such institutions are overpopulated leading to a skewed lecturer-to-student ratio. This has significantly affected the quality of graduates, especially in the poor and developing countries. Despite these challenges, most governments have boosted their investment in this sector while the private sector has come in to assist. However, as the demand for employees that can interact with machines increases, the education sector will be under pressure to keep up. In the absence of enough financial backing, HEIs will lag behind this demand, leading to a shortage of skilled workforce in the market.
Labor
Technological advancement has not been positively welcomed in entirety. There has been a growing narrative that technological revolution will worsen the job market. This is based on the premise that the use of machines will soon replace human beings. Subsequently, this will exacerbate joblessness. Advanced by ‘neo-luddites’, this narrative postulates that automation will result in unemployment due to the replacement of workers. The overriding assumption is that use of machines will increase efficiency, and therefore, reduce the amount of work to be done by workers (Miller and Atkinson, 2013).
The debate on whether or not technology is creating or taking over jobs is historical . However, statistics show that technology has also resulted in a massive creation of employment. This is as opposed to taking them away and rendering people jobless (Allen, 2015; Metz, 2015; Miller and Atkinson, 2013). Technology results in increased productivity , lowers the cost of production, leading to the reduced market price of goods . As a result, an individual spends less money on goods and services. Subsequently, the savings made due to increased productivity raises the individual's spending power (Svendsen, 2008) and end up in the economy, creating demand that ultimately results in new jobs. Another scenario is switching of the labour force. In this case, with automation , the number of people required to complete specified amount s of work will be lowered. Therefore, the people that are not engaged in doing that particular task can be reassigned to do something else. In this regard, laborious and repetitive tasks are taken over my machines but this doesn't necessarily eliminate the use of human beings in powering the economy.
A counter-narrative is that technology has reduced jobs in specific sectors (Allen, 2015). However, it has led to increased job opportunities in others. There has been a switch in labor, from the traditional use of humans as a source of raw power to their engagement i n lighter roles. For instance, t he engagement of people as miners, cleaners, agricultural labourers and household servants has been replaced by machines . On the other, there has been a rise in demand for professionals in healthcare, education and service sectors. Further, automation has led to the growth of the knowledge-based sector. This growth has increased the demand for doctors, accountants, teachers and other professionals. Additionally, with technological advancement, prices of food and other necessities has gone down. Therefore, people have the capacity to spend money on leisure and other personal pursuits (Svendsen, 2008), which translate into the creation of more jobs.
Consumption
Technological automation has been and will continue to influence consumption and a number of scenarios are likely. First and most important, automation will result in increased consumption. The use of machines in the production process has two principal implications; increased efficiency, and reduced cost. The two attributes ensure that the marketplace is constantly supplied with affordable products. From a consumer's perspective, this implies that he/she can easily access anything he needs, anytime, and at a reasonable price. In this case, automation has resulted in increased consumption by not only making products relatively affordable but also highly accessible. Besides this, there is a close correlation between automation and work, in the context of consumption.
The 3D printer has emerged in the recent past. This machine can download a specified design from the internet, and by use of extrusion technology make 3-dimensional electronic circuitry and plastic parts. Likewise, the printer can create parts that make other machines ( Rothenberg, 2010) . Based on this, it is agreeable that in the future this technology will facilitate the manufacture of various items at home as opposed to a factory. For instance, the ability to ‘print’ a mobile phone at home would revolutionize consumption of phones as well as alter demand and supply of the same. Another example is the consumption of music. In the past CD’s had to be ordered online or bought at a store. Currently, music can be uploaded, downloaded and played anywhere, anytime. These two scenarios mean that with automation, the scarcity of both producers and goods is eliminated ( Rothenberg, 2010) . Secondly, they imply that with automation it is very likely that production might surpass consumption. In this case, measures to encourage consumption might be put in place. These might include, among other options, price reduction. Overall, however, the two scenarios result in a very pertinent question; if machines are working for us, making everything that we need, why should we work to get money, so as to buy the things we need?
Through technology, consumption has also been automated. Technology companies, including but not limited to Apple, Google, Amazon and Facebook, have automated such consumer tasks as purchasing, discovery, transportation and transactions. This automation is currently being pushed further by the use of disruptive digital enterprises. Innovation in technology and the consumers' demand for enhanced user experience are the catalysts for the increased automation of consumption (Ericsson, 2016). Overall, therefore, technological automation will not only make consumption affordable, but it will also simplify the act of consuming. Ultimately, this will lead to increased consumption.
Conclusion
The fascination and obsession of scientists' with automation have resulted in a global shift in the nature of work. This has consequently influenced the world economy in various. One such implication is the inevitable substitution of human labor with machines. Accordingly, there is an overwhelming fear that machines might kick people out of employment. Likewise, based on this, people have foreseen the possibilities of a world without work. Technological automation might not completely phase out work. However, it will result in serious and profound impacts on personal income, labor, consumption, education, and social interaction.
Reference
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Ericsson. (2016). Disruption of the old consumption logic. Ericsson.
Frase, P. (2015). Four Futures: Life after capitalism . New York: Bloomsbury .
Metz, C. ( 2015 ) . Robots will steal our jobs but they will give us new ones Retrieved from http://www.wired.com/2015/08/robots-will-steal-jobs-theyll-give-us-new-ones/
Miller, B. & Atkinson, R. ( 2013 ) . Are Robots Taking Our Jobs, or Making Them? The International Technology and Innovation Foundation. Washington, D.C.
Rothenberg, E. (2010, May 7). Capitalism and the a ge of m achines . huffingtonpost.com. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/erik-rothenberg/capitalism-and-the-age-of_b_565239.html
Stiglitz, J. E. (2006). Making globalization work . New York: W.W. Norton & Co.
Svendsen, L. ( 2008 ) . Work, Bergen: Acumen Publishing.
Thompson, D. (2015, July/August Issue). A world without work. theatlantic.com. Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/07/world-without-work/395294/
