As I watched the Microsoft Ignite conference in Chicago, Illinois recently, I was fascinated by the new technology being presented. However it was also sobering because of future implications for the generations of my children and granddaughter’s.
One of the comments made during a presentation at Microsoft Ignite was that businesses would be able to have both employees and outside contractors sign into a business infrastructure together. This is a significant change because previously server systems and networks, because of security, tended to be closed to outside contractors or “free- agents. “It was noted that business models are changing and more and more people are going to become “outside contractors” [free agents] as opposed to employees.
This concept is discussed in Talent Management magazine (April 2015) in an article entitled “The New Free Agent Nation” by Max Mhelliah. The author notes:
“At an increasing rate, companies are collecting the names of talented freelancers who make up the ever-growing population of the workforce.”
Further he presents a historical perspective:
“In 1997, there were roughly 25 million free agents in the United States, which represented about 16 percent of the country’s workforce, according to U.S. government data. Since, that number has more than doubled to 53 million Americans, according to a 2014 study by research firm Edelman Berland.”
As was noted at the Microsoft Ignite conference, the article discusses this change in our society. The following is from Lauren Schulte, director of enterprise marketing, Elance-odesk Inc.
“For generations, our culture has valued long-term, full-time employment,” Schulte said. “There was a time when it was a point of pride to work for a single company for a lifetime. These days are behind us. The average tenure of a job in the U.S. is 4.6 years. Pensions and retirement plans are a thing of the past.”
The statistics presented in this article are telling.
“Tenure times, while decreasing, vary depending on age. Median employee tenure is generally higher among older workers. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median tenure of workers aged 55 to 64 is about 10 1/2 [ten and one-half] years – more than three times that of workers aged 25 to 34 years, who tend to stick around for an average of three years.
Those born between 1980 and 2000, the Millennials, is predicted to make up more than half the workforce by 2020 according to the article. They took their first job, “when the job market was at a notable low”.
Generation Y is the generation born between 1982 and 2004 (http://www.ask.com/world-view/generation-y-age-range-4974e5c1fa43793d). The article notes:
“Given Generation Y’s desire for flexibility at work, it’s easy to imagine a workforce increasingly made up of freelancers. Elance-odesk predicts the workforce could be half freelance by 2020.”
Another article entitled Robots increase manufacturing productivity by Andrew Wilson, Vision Systems Design Magazine, [April 2015] shows the way robotics are advancing.
“Robotic systems are now commonplace in many automated manufacturing processes. In the automotive industry, for example, such systems are used for the assembly of engines, transmissions and axles, as well as car body painting and welding.”
”When deployed, these systems both relieve human operators of such hazardous, highly repetitive and manually taxing tasks while increasing the productivity of manufacturing production lines.”
“Traditionally, such robotic-based systems have been separated form human workers by safety guards to prevent injuries caused by fast-moving robotic operations.”
However, that is changing rapidly.
“… manufacturers are now introducing a new generation of robots that employ torque sensors and vision systems to allow such robotic systems to work more closely with human beings. By combining the cognitive abilities of human operators and the potential of robotic automation, these so-called force-limited robots sometimes incorrectly called collaborative robots (or cobots) will thus increase the productivity of automated manufacturing processes.”
Just like in the computer industry, manufacturing is becoming increasingly automated. People with be called in when they have a specific skill or talent needed for the job at hand. There will be less and less people needed on a full time basis to operate our high tech, as well as, our basic industries.
Another article entitled It’s Time to Investigate the H-1B Mess by William NG, Design News Magazine [May, 2015] notes:
“Clearly some companies are gaming the system. The recent Southern California Edison case, in which 500 employees lost their jobs to overseas workers and foreigners holding H-1B visas, served as a clear example of that. According to Senate testimony of Ronil Hira, a public policy professor at Rochester Institute of Technology, the offshore outsourcing firms that hired the California Edison employees paid them about 40% less than the American workers they replaced.”
Clearly this is another way to cut costs, but to what end? If the majority of our global businesses are able to use “free-agents,” either to cut costs or due to increases in technology and robotics, then what? Where are the customers who are able to afford the goods and services made by these more productive, and more efficient, leaner corporations?
So why aren’t we as a nation talking about this transformation? While I enjoy technology and am certainly not a “Luddite,” I decry the fact that both our national leaders and our global leaders continue to talk and develop policy as if we were still in the mid-1800s industrial revolution. They pass legislation based on the 1950s model of General Motors and subsidize mega-international corporations with federal (government) dollars just to create the illusion of normalcy, wealth and economic growth.
As I have noted in several recent blogs, our leaders both globally and in the United States (both the “R’s” and “D’s” as I term them) are either clueless about the issues or don’t care about maintaining anything but their own lifestyle and portfolio. In my opinion, they are too smart/educated to be clueless. Which leads me to believe, that with the exception of a very few, they (the elite) will do and say anything which will serve to protect, preserve and enhance their lifestyle and position.
On this Memorial Day [May 25, 2015] in the United States, we honor the men and women who have served and those who paid the ultimate price for “our freedom.” However, I know that what we have today is not the country my Dad and Granddad envisioned when they served.
To me, true leadership is being of service to those subordinate to you. This clearly is not a definition the majority of political/business leaders either in the United States or globally adhere to. Sadly, these leaders, which typically are part of the top 1% (elites) in wealth and resources, apparently don’t realize that the stronger the global “middle class” the more secure their leadership position. It seems, at least in the United States, we have one party, “the Party of Me.”
If this is not so, where are the substantive discussions of the impact of technology on jobs and a vision of an increasingly automated global society? Why are our leaders not discussing how our global economy needs to change to incorporate this new technology in the form of computers, medical technology, transportation design and robotics, while creating a sustainable lifestyle for the general population? Clearly, we cannot even discuss global climate on a rational basis without introducing generalities and political platitudes.
How do we continue to develop and maintain a high standard of living as more and more people are replaced by robotics or become “free-lance” workers? What does this mean to our increasingly expensive health care and insurance systems? How do people enjoy the “fruits” of this increased productivity when they have no way to “earn a living” because they don’t fit into the select few job skills which are in demand?
Technology has tremendous promise in many fields such as medicine, computers, agriculture, manufacturing and transportation. Some of this promise can be seen in recent space missions. One of the first of these missions is presented in my downloadable EPub entitled EROS Adventure, Journey to an Asteroid. The 300 plus high resolution photographs included in this publication are stunning to say the least. It is a tribute to the beginning of our advancing technology.
Our lives will be revolutionized, on one hand. However, the downside may be dire as well. How will we cope with the transformation from a human driven society to a machine driven [automated] society? If the majority of our goods and services are produced or performed by robots and automation, how will we respond? What will that model look like? As noted previously, where does the money come from for most of the population to buy these new goods and services, as well as the more common day items such as food, clothing, electricity and housing? In a word, how do we feed and provide for our families under these conditions?
I talk about this issue in my EPub entitled World Collapse or New Eden, which follows over 100 predictions made in the 2008-2011 time-frame through 2015. It makes a fascinating read with many links to the topics presented. A number of the predictions are relevant to this technology verses jobs discussion.
For the sake of the next generation, that of my son and daughter, and the next generation after them, that of my granddaughters, we need to be educating ourselves and really discussing these issues. We need to demand that our leaders discuss these issues in a meaningful way. To go into a major election (in the U.S.) with candidates named Hilary, Jeb, Christy, Cruz, Huckabee, Perry, Santorum, Walker and others talking about “lost emails” or “where and who to go to war with next” is utter stupidity and a total distraction. One of the only candidates in the presidential field discussing a significantly different agenda is Rand Paul, and I suspect he will be marginalized as his father was.
Should we continue down this path and allow our “leaders” and “future leaders” to continue this deception with the aid of the corporate owned (elite) mainstream media, then we deserve what we get. However, our children and grandchildren do not deserve the future we are handing to them.
Sincerely,
H. Court Young
Author, publisher, speaker and geologist
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