This is an updated version of a 1995 publication by Jeremy Rifkin, Wharton Fellow and president of the Foundation on Economic Trends in Washington, D.C. In the first book, Rifkin proposed the idea that the end of work was coming: The "decline of the global labor force," he said, was not a reference to the unavailability of potential employees, but rather to the reduced need for human labor.
For this edition, Rifkin suggests that the problems he wrote about nine years ago have worsened. He draws parallels between current trends and the period of high consumer debt that preceded the stock market crash of 1929. The traditional economic theory of increased productivity eventually leading to reduced unemployment and economic growth is failing, he states. Economic indicators are up, but unemployment remains high.
Rifkin discusses historical events and their effects on the economy as well as theories such as "trickle-down technology." This theory asserts that technological advances will lead to more workers getting better jobs. The reduced cost of products increases demand, creating new markets and the need for more high-tech workers. However, in practice this theory may not hold weight, as evidenced by the abundance of silicon telephone operators and silicon postal mail sorters, amid rising unemployment.
Is it just simple math? Rifkin cites France as an example of a country that combated unemployment by reducing the work week. Increased productivity means less human labor, leaving two choices: Reduce the number of hours worked, or reduce the number of employees—the latter having the more drastic effect of fewer people being able to maintain current standards of living.
Rising unemployment is a global phenomenon that can spiral to despair and is connected with increased crime, violence, and social upheaval. According to Rifkin, we must find ways to improve our social economy and prepare for a post-market era that values human relationships, community life, and stewardship more than productivity.
Rifkin quotes the prediction of philosopher and psychologist Herbert Marcuse, who said, "Automation threatens to render possible the reversal of the relation between free time and working time: the possibility of working time becoming marginal and free time becoming full-time." Are we nearing that time?—Cynthia D. Churchwell