The End of Work Is Not for Now. It Is Better to Focus on Making Work Meaningful Again.
Wage-earners need this more today than a hypothetical universal basic income.
More and more economists are formal: artificial intelligence and robotics simply announce the end of work. The new technologies designed by GAFAM (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft) and BATX (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, and Xiaomi), the Chinese equivalent of GAFAM, would give reason to the advocates of universal basic income.
This is, for example, the thesis defended by the American essayist Jeremy Rifkin in his book “The End of Work: The Decline of the Global Labor Force and the Dawn of the Post-Market Era”. In another book, “The Zero Marginal Cost Society: The Internet of Things, the Collaborative Commons, and the Eclipse of Capitalism”, Rifkin further strengthens his thesis by bringing it up to date with the web giants:
“Automation is replacing human labor. Amazon is equipping its warehouses with automated and guided intelligent vehicles, automated robots, and automated storage systems, enabling it to eliminate manual labor. This goal is now in sight with the introduction of driverless vehicles. Automation, robotics, and artificial intelligence are eliminating human work as quickly in services as in industry and logistics. Secretaries, documenters, switchboard operators, travel agents, bank tellers, cashiers, and countless other service workers have all but disappeared ...”
Hence the hypothesis is that we could be witnessing the emergence of a new type of growth, a growth without jobs, with the rise of companies such as Uber or Airbnb, which generate colossal profits without creating salaried work in the same proportion. The pandemic effect has been added to these ideologies to reinforce the decision of some to anticipate the end of work.
Thus, 38 million Americans left their jobs in 2021 because they were tired of wasting their lives... to earn it. This Great Resignation movement is gaining momentum globally to the point that 1 in 5 people are now considering quitting their jobs in the next 12 months.
According to other economists, who are followers of Joseph Schumpeter, these analyses are wrong, as new technologies are creating new jobs unknown in the old days, and this in many fields: cybersecurity, data analysis, biotechnologies, personal services, health professions, ...
The problem of unemployment is not so much a lack of jobs as a mismatch between the training of employees and the demands of employers. More and more citizens are becoming unemployable for lack of adequate training. But it is also in the opposite direction that the problem arises, on the side of the offer made by the companies, as we can see for example in the field of the restoration where the shortage of employees is linked to the lack of attractiveness.
The truth is that many people would like to work because they believe that it is a strong element of self-construction, sociability, and even human dignity, provided that they can make new demands:
Of meaning, first of all (sometimes more important than the amount of income).
Freedom and autonomy, secondly, with the organization of working hours becoming as essential as working time. The development of telework, if it is reasonably combined with face-to-face work, will make it possible to reconcile work and private life.
Social utility, finally (the ecological impact of the company also becoming a factor of choice).
Final Thoughts
In short, the qualitative takes precedence over the purely quantitative, with the well-being and usefulness of the job adding to the purchasing power. When we talk about work arduousness, it is no longer just a question of physical wear and tear, but of the absence of meaning, responsibility and freedom.
Some will say, rather on the right, that laziness and assistance are gaining ground, others, rather on the left, that this dynamiting by the fact of the society of productivism and hyperconsumption goes in the right direction.
Of course, these demands are not the same for the young graduate of a top school who can be picky and for the 45-year-old unemployed who is desperately looking for something to support his family. What is clear, at the very least, is that instead of abolishing work in the name of a utopian universal basic income or a cut-off pension, it would be in the interest of business leaders and politicians alike to take into account these metamorphoses of work.
The world is changing, and we must evolve with it to give society a taste for work again.
Some reading
The Seven Pillars of Bitcoin. They are the ones who make the Bitcoin revolution credible.
Want To Know How To Trade Bitcoin With Success? Follow the Whales. An interesting phenomenon to observe for several weeks now.
Bitcoin and KYC Policies – Everything You Need To Know (Risks, How To Protect Yourself, …). Whatever your choice, the important thing is to understand where the risks lie.
A UBI should not be an addition to what we have already, but a replacement.
It should be part of a new tax code. A UBI and a Flat Tax.
The UBI (at the poverty level) replaces dollar for dollar all safety-net payments, for the poor ($0.9T of $2.0T). [It also ends poverty for citizens.]
It gets rid of disincentives for earning income.
It also replaces tax deductions for the rich. ($1.6T)
The cost ($2.5T) is therefore net neutral, compared to the current code.
The impact is net positive for the poor and middle class. However, while it is a static cost for the rich, it is a net dynamic positive.
Compliance with the current tax code takes 8 billion man-hours. A flat tax would require only 2 billion. This would add the equivalent of 3 million man-years from our most productive citizens (who pay taxes); or 2% annual national growth.
With an increase in national growth, the rich would pay more in taxes on higher incomes.
[Non-citizens and minors could receive a tax deduction that is the equivalent of the UBI.]
Businesses would pay the flat tax on revenue. The only tax deductions would be expenses, where the tax has already been paid. Like: salaries, domestic supplies, and services