After a couple days off, today we return to the general idea of this blog. Which is to talk about the future of human civilization and especially how western countries will be shaped by both social and technological issues in the coming years. Today we tackle a subject that is divisive and emotional. The future of the socio-economic landscape. We live in a period that has seen disparity between the lower, middle and upper class citizens. So the question is, will it get worse? Will the rich get richer and the poor, poorer? Let's dive in to get a better idea of the situation because this is a volatile subject that ebbs and flows following technological and cultural advancements and missteps.
So let's look forward to the next five to ten years. The biggest problem facing us is the huge amount of unemployment we might see through robotization and automation in the coming years. Think driverless vehicles as an example. Millions of people that are taxi drivers, or work for companies like Uber and Lyft could be rendered unemployed within the next 10 years maybe even sooner. This is especially concerning since those industries often employ people with skills that do not cross over or people that use Uber as a means of supplementary income to simply make ends meet. This would essentially leave a stunningly large percentage of the population jobless. This is without even mentioning unskilled work, like fast food restaurants. Fast food restaurant would happily shift from employees that demand a living wage and benefits, to ordering machines that only demand electricity and routine checks. This again, displaces millions of workers.
So how will we deal with this? How will the socio-economic plane be shaped by this displacement and how will we make sure this doesn't lead to the collapse of the entire economy? Well this truly is not an easy question to answer, but we should try to anyway.
Unfortunately, the issue facing us going forward is increasing wealth disparity between the lower, middle and upper classes. This is ultimately unsustainable. We possibly face a period of extreme poverty versus extreme wealth not unlike what we are currently experiencing, just much worse. This could inevitably lead to an even more volatile social climate. If there's anything that people hate more than poverty, is relative poverty. We're already politically in an epoch that has seen people completely distrust and despise the government. Every move at face value seems to be to be fueled by a thirst for power and money. Obviously this is a misguided and superficial way of dissecting these problems, but the appearance is what will shape the way the public attacks these issues. This could possibly give rise to a new revolt by the people as they try to reclaim equality. The truth is, economic stability and equality is what will create a stable and working society. Do not misunderstand. This is not a call to reinforce socialistic views, because socialist movements tend to fall apart much faster than moderately unequal economic formats like market driven capitalist environments. No, I rather want to perpetuate a way of combining good ideas from all viewpoints to create a balance.
Throughout history there's been a tug of war between ideals with different epochs being plagued with an overrepresentation of a single side. Often being unbalanced because the pendulum swung and is taking too long to swing back. Think of how we elect our public representatives. Often choosing someone simply because they are different than what was before because we've becoming so disenchanted with the former governing body. We look at the former representatives through the lens of their mistakes, and try to course correct by voting in the opposite direction, not realizing that what awaits us could be just as bad just in a different way. So here I say we must lookout for the changes coming. What I call for is a watchful eye, to see when the pendulum is about to swing. To try and catch it before it swings too hard.
In the case of the future of the western socio-economic, it's important to see where the pendulum is swinging. Where technology is going because it could truly be the undoing of all that has been worked for by the ones before us.
Of course I could be wrong and technology will help the general population to properly diversify and create avenues for anyone to climb the ladder and offer a way of properly stabilizing the economy and one day offer all people with the peace of mind we all seek.
So let's hope I'm wrong.
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