As we approach yet another downward trending economic period, the potential for war (both of the hot and trade kinds) and our propensity to innovate ourselves out of our jobs increases at pace, what does the future hold for the average working man or woman?
We’ve all heard the calamitous predictions about the future of work, and how Artificial Intelligence will eventually remove the need for human labour. This slow trainwreck is unfortunately speeding up. Quickly.
Cast a cold eye online and view the content of most news and media sites. AI-generated images abound, and you can quickly tell if an article has been produced by a large language model, due to its lack of feeling, pace and local idioms.
We all knew that so-called creative roles would be the first to fall. The New York Times recently published an article highlighting the plight of Gen Xers (of which I am one) who find themselves stuck in a fast-evaporating pool of available jobs. Freelance is now no longer a dirty word. It is a sad reality. And it is a stressful one, too. Millions of ad agency workers, journalists, designers, illustrators, layout artists and editors are finding themselves on stranger shores, wondering if they did anything wrong.
Of course, this is not the first time such a tidal wave of change has decimated a once respected and sought after career path, and it won’t be the last.
According to that New York Times article I mentioned earlier, by 2030, ad agencies in the United States will lose 32,000 jobs, or 7.5 percent of the industry’s work force, to technology, according to the research firm Forrester. It’s the same story everywhere. As a longtime copywriter and journalist/editor myself, I’ve seen colleagues move from cushy salaries to precarious freelance work. Journalists, photographers, graphic designers, art directors – we are going the way of the dodo. A pensionable job in media is now as elusive as a Tasmanian Devil.
The same thing has been happening across multiple industries over the last 10-15 years. Automation in factories, which started back during the industrial revolution, has increased at pace. You only have to look at what an Amazon distribution centre looks like these days to see where this is all going. Add to that the rise of the robots and well, the future looks grim for the working man.
I remember, a few years back reading Rutger Bregman’s book Utopia for Realists and thinking that this way forward of a Universal Basic Income for all could never work. And sure enough the push-back on this idea has been enormous – not least due to the implications of the people being at the mercy of governments, rather than their own desire for personal advancement.
What is interesting in recent times though is the suggestion that income tax be abolished, and be replaced with a consumption tax instead, and the establishment of sovereign wealth funds that would do much of the heavy lifting that would make peoples’ lives better by utilising the resources of the nation to support the economy and thereby its people.
One thing is for certain, most middle-aged Gen Xers are now looking at the sky waiting for the economic hammer to fall. They understand that they can no longer live where they once lived, work in the careers they once loved and enjoy the lifestyle that went with it. As Gen X approaches retirement, they are looking for a way out. A way to maximise their wealth and live a decent life in their remaining 20 or 30 years. To do this they are selling up and moving away. They are looking for far-flung tax havens, places where the cost of living is low; where crime levels are lower still, and where homelessness, drug abuse, illegal immigration and failing infrastructure have not yet made their mark.
Mark my words – in the coming ten years we will see a virtual exodus from our major cities to low-cost lands. Property prices will tumble as the escape begins. Without a fully employed population and decent wages, the future looks increasingly grim.
With the death of the globalist ideals of yesterday, we will face a more fractious future where resilience on a nation state and even regional level will become vital. But until then, my advice is to get the hell out of Dodge as fast as your 401K/pension will carry you.
