600m jobs are needed but technology is the enemy

On September 9, the World Bank said 600m jobs needed to be created during the next decade and a half. This is to accommodate expected world population increase.

No provision is made for the number of jobs that will be eliminated by the genius of technological automation, although it consigns millions of tasks that required human input to the archives of history.

This pronouncement is the most recent indication of the calamitous unemployment the world faces, unless there is re-evaluation of the relationship between work and employment. The crazy pretense that technology does not eliminate jobs must be debated.

It appears political and economic establishments have decided the best way to deal with the radical changes technology has wrought on employment is to ignore it, to refuse to acknowledge or debate it and hope it is not for real.

But it is real and, as technology improves, it will accelerate beyond remedy, if not addressed.

Sadly, the media has failed utterly to make the establishment face the reality of decreasing work and increasing unemployment.

No newspaper or broadcasting establishment appears willing to demand of politicians and economists an explanation of how economics and unemployment could be unaffected by technology and how growth can be stimulated or sustained despite over-production and over-supply.

Padraic Neary

Charlestown Rd

Tubbercurry

Co Sligo