the end of work

In this must-read book, as unsettling as it is useful, Jeremy Rifkin attempts to show us that we are entering a new phase of human history, characterized by what already seems to be a permanent and inevitable decline of what we understood as work until now. Current unemployment figures, on a global scale, are the highest since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The number of underemployed or jobless people is growing at a dizzying rate, mainly due to the millions of newcomers to the labor market who are becoming sacrificial victims of a new technological revolution. And the most sophisticated computers, robotics, telecommunications, and other forms of high technology are rapidly replacing human beings in most economic sectors, whether in manufacturing processes, retail distribution, transport, agriculture, or various administrative activities. In other words, the vast majority of jobs will disappear never to return, so the world will end up polarizing into two forces, into two potentially irreconcilable trends: on the one hand, a well-informed elite that will control and manage the global high-tech economy; and, on the other, a growing number of permanently displaced workers, with few future prospects and even less hope of securing acceptable employment in an increasingly automated world. Based on all this, Rifkin states that we should begin to consider the existence of the post-market era, that is, the one we are beginning to live in; to think of alternative forms to the most common approaches to work, to implement new ways of generating income and distributing power; and to generate greater confidence in the third sector; which in turn should allow for the reconstruction of our communities and our cultures. We must become aware that, while the end of work may mean the end of civilization as we have known it until now, it may also be the beginning of a great social transformation that brings with it the rebirth of the human spirit.

In this must-read book, as unsettling as it is useful, Jeremy Rifkin attempts to show us that we are entering a new phase of human history, characterized by what already seems to be a permanent and inevitable decline of what we understood as work until now. Current unemployment figures, on a global scale, are the highest since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The number of underemployed or jobless people is growing at a dizzying rate, mainly due to the millions of newcomers to the labor market who are becoming sacrificial victims of a new technological revolution. And the most sophisticated computers, robotics, telecommunications, and other forms of high technology are rapidly replacing human beings in most economic sectors, whether in manufacturing processes, retail distribution, transport, agriculture, or various administrative activities. In other words, the vast majority of jobs will disappear never to return, so the world will end up polarizing into two forces, into two potentially irreconcilable trends: on the one hand, a well-informed elite that will control and manage the global high-tech economy; and, on the other, a growing number of permanently displaced workers, with few future prospects and even less hope of securing acceptable employment in an increasingly automated world. Based on all this, Rifkin states that we should begin to consider the existence of the post-market era, that is, the one we are beginning to live in; to think of alternative forms to the most common approaches to work, to implement new ways of generating income and distributing power; and to generate greater confidence in the third sector; which in turn should allow for the reconstruction of our communities and our cultures. We must become aware that, while the end of work may mean the end of civilization as we have known it until now, it may also be the beginning of a great social transformation that brings with it the rebirth of the human spirit.