Posted on 08/21/2014 1:28:02 AM PDT by lee martell
We get closer having the ability to implement a fully automated, robotized, dehumanized society every day. Google has been testing self driving cars in select areas of the country for the last six or seven years. Only now, has the driverless car become something more than an engineers fantasy. McDonald's Restaurants and other fast food retailers are preparing themselves to be forced to offer a minimum wage that usually comes only after several skill sets have been mastered by a seasoned employee. The restaurants prepare for this change by wheeling in a few automated order taking machines. Drones may soak up many delivery jobs in the future. Even the world of medical treatment has been effected. Robotic surgery is said to specialize in minimally invasive procedures performed by using very small incisions. One of the most popular Robotic Surgery tool is named the Da Vinci. All of these inventions increase bottom line efficiency and production, two aspects at the core of every well functioning business or public concern. That the machines are more accurate, efficient, dependable, and exponentially cheaper than using people is often accepted as obvious fact. But if the momentum of change continues, how is society to prepare for the tidal waves of unemployed people who will very soon outnumber those still actively working? What will all these people do with there time? The easy, short term answer for some may be to treat every day as though it were Saturday. That approach to every day will quickly become tiresome. Most of us need to work, and not just for the money.
Working on a regular basis, even working part time, adds structure to one's life. Many people are not very social, unless artificially put into tense, complex situations that must be dealt with. Working helps the average person reach a feeling of achievement. One is told to 'do your best' on your job, whatever that job involves. Working helps some people to incorporate their survival instinct with their ambition, and take calculated risks. Many people meet their best friends while on the job. Some people would never have been happily married had they not been working or involved in the demands of their job. This may be stronger in the American culture than in many other parts of the world, but many people find their greatest personal satisfaction while on the job. The right job takes you outside of yourself, and provides you with an opportunity to serve others. This is one reason why volunteer work is so popular with those who can afford to do so. The right job offers temporary solace to that inner need to be needed. We all want to be needed sometimes for somethings.
We have established the importance and intrinsic value of working. We must coordinate this personal need of the soul and of the ego to work along with the ominous March of The Robots. They are coming closer, and closer still. It is my opinion that eventually, there will be a system agreed to that will preserve a portion of most jobs for human workers. This may be a percentage. Not long from now, many companies will make a point of telling you; "Not only do we have websites, twitter, and facebook, we also have 'team members' waiting to meet with you at our office. Yes, we hire people, not just delivery systems. We support the goal of working to achieve personal growth!". Personal Growth through employment may become as in vogue as the 'New Green', something most everyone will say they support and comprehend, even when they don't. The Unions may find a way to promote the hiring and retention of fixed numbers of people. The Unions will be one answer to this approaching dilemma, but their clout is far smaller today that it was thirty years ago, when many workers were forced to pay dues.
Then he said to them, "Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For it is the one who is least among you all who is the greatest."
— Luke 9:48
That guy under the THINK sign was a notable doer.
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