Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Are jobs obsolete?

http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/09/07/rushkoff.jobs.obsolete/index.html

"New technologies are wreaking havoc on employment figures -- from EZpasses ousting toll collectors to Google-controlled self-driving automobiles rendering taxicab drivers obsolete. Every new computer program is basically doing some task that a person used to do. But the computer usually does it faster, more accurately, for less money, and without any health insurance costs."

I don't think Rushkoff has the answer to his question. But I love the question.  I really think the latest world economic meltdown has laid bare the fact that our current economic system is no longer viable. The problem is, what do you replace it with? That I have no idea.  But to me, that should be the burning question on everybody's mind until the answer does come.  Didn't the Star Trek series have this figured out, where everybody worked to some degree but nobody actually got "paid" as we think of it?

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