Jobs

So in August I saw this video on Matt’s blog

And for the last week(ish) Planet Money has been doing a great series on how technology takes away jobs and what that really means for the world, and you, and me:

1. When Luddites Attack
2. Humans vs. Robots
3. The Machine Comes To Town
4. I, Waiter
5. The Last Job
6. This Is The End

I struggle to even comment on the subject, but it seems to me like the Star Trek economy is the end result of these discussions. As automation increases, it never fully takes over all jobs, but jobs become voluntary at some point. The fiction of The Last Job is portrayed to be oddly dystopian – whereas I kind of see it as the best of all possible worlds.

As the world is now, jobs are necessary to sustain human life. But the whole point of this material is that the world is changing. If automation is doing our jobs better than us — we’re better off to let more and more people not have jobs but continue with a wonderful life.The simple but polarizing idea of guaranteed minimum income can become politically feasible in the right economic climate.

I don’t really have  answers, but if you have more reading or listening on the subject, please leave a comment so I can check it out. I’ve been thinking a lot about the subject.