To wonder what will happen when there are no iobs

[rainandfire]

When technology does everything, driving, deliveries, retail ... what will people do then?

[Judashascomeintosomemoney]

Fix the technology when it inevitably goes wrong

[formerbabe]

I thought this.

I reckon there will have to be some sort of citizens wage. I just can't see how there will be enough jobs for everyone.

[Cantseethewoods]

There will have to be some sort of basic wage paid for my taxing those who own the technology. Otherwise everyone will riot and smash up the robots. Unless the robots have evolved so that they are basically human in which case we all get enslaved.

[nancy75]

We are going to turn into big blobs that can’t do a thing for ourselves ( think about devices that turn in lights, open curtains etc all without having to get out of a chair)

[SleepFreeZone]

No need for prostitutes either as there will be sex robots taking care of that.

[LadyinCement]

It is a bit worrying.

One idea being rolled around is the Citizens Wage, where everyone receives a certain amount. The problem with this is that things need to reach a certain point before this becomes a necessity, rather than a lifestyle choice.

The other problem is that certain jobs will always exist, and some of those are not attractive. Care for the elderly is one example. I think 99% of people would opt for a citizen's wage rather than wipe old people's bottoms.

I can imagine a situation where there is some sort of Citizen Service, whereby all 18-25-year-olds, say, have to work in care homes before they can qualify for the Citizens Wage.

[ImKait]

what will people do then?

Complain.

[SantasLittleMonkeyButler]

50% of people will be over 80 (ageing population, folk living to 120 regularly) and the other 50% will be employed in caring for them .

Well, not quite 50% maybe - a few people might still be having babies, so we should allow a few % for the under 18's who are not yet eligible to work in care.

One job that the robots will never be able to do.

[rainandfire]

Wouldn't citizens wage just send inflation levels out of reach?

[rainandfire]

Caring jobs are vanishing because of technology that can tell when people have taken medication and assist people with bathing and so on. Obviously some will remain but the need will be really reduced.

[GoodMorningJudge]

I believe there is already this situation, to some extent. Possibly why so many young people are at college - what else is there to do ?

A whole swathe of middle-class work is gone - bank clerks, typists, secretaries, accounts clerks. A whole swathe of skilled labour gone, be it furniture-makers or instrument-makers or whatever. Many mass-producing factories have gone abroad (e.g. China).

[ImaginaryCat]

I recently read a very good piece about exactly this. The 2 things that technology can’t do are individual (non-replicable) manual jobs (kitchen fitting, plumbing, electrician, etc) and high-end data analysis / critical thinking (things like law, crisis management and politics). So it’s all the jobs in between these two that will disappear, but new opportunities will be created, e.g. the manual workers who maintain the technology and the philosophers who interpret the terabytes of data.

[hotbutteredcrumpetsandtea]

There will always be jobs and many things tech can't do.

[hotbutteredcrumpetsandtea]

A whole swathe of middle-class work is gone - bank clerks, typists, secretaries, accounts clerks. A whole swathe of skilled labour gone, be it furniture-makers or instrument-makers or whatever

All those things still exist, so no.

[Ilovelampandchair]

There will always be jobs! They may just be different to the ones now. I'm not worried in the slightest.

[makeourfuture]

Soldiers. We may be needing lots of soldiers.

[PollyPerky]

There will always be jobs. Just like we have no mines now and hardly any agriculture compared to the past, we now have new jobs in IT etc. There will be new jobs and as humans we can always control how much we allow technology to replace manpower.

[RhiannonOHara]

Work in the future will be done by robots or artists. By artists I mean not just narrowly people who paint or whatever, but things including furniture-makers, as Judge says, as well as artisans more generally (ie middle-class people doing the things working-class people used to do).

It is a massive question, what to do with everyone else. Universal basic income won't solve the problem on its own. We need as a species/society to discover a whole new way of finding our lives meaningful. Not easy after decades and decades of the mindset of work being the way to meaning.

It's interesting, if frightening and daunting too.

[SantasLittleMonkeyButler]

Caring jobs are vanishing because of technology that can tell when people have taken medication and assist people with bathing and so on.

But that only covers the very able end of elderly care. I'm thinking more of care/nursing homes where things like that could never be enough. I can see how bathing aids might help in the community but who reminds the elderly person how to use it when they've become confused & forgotten? Or who prompts the person to bathe at all?

Sorry, I'm not purposefully trying to be argumentative, I just work with people with advanced dementia - mostly end of life - in a specialist nursing centre. I just can't possibly imagine how a robot could cope .

How would you even program it? Now two hours are the same, let alone two days - how will it know if someone's trying to eat the soap?

There are thousands of vacancies in care work across the country at any given time at the moment, so new human recruits are going to have to come from somewhere in the future.

[hotbutteredcrumpetsandtea]

Caring jobs are vanishing because of technology that can tell when people have taken medication and assist people with bathing and so on

Again, no. There are more caring jobs than there have ever been. There is almost no tech that can replace disability/elder care.

[Lweji]

At some point we will run out of metal reserves.

But maybe we'll have organic androids/robots too.

Well, we might as well acquire fighting skills for the Terminator/Matrix scenarios.

[rainandfire]

Now there are many caring job, I know, but this won't be th case in a decade.

[Lweji]

I think a decade is optimistic/pessimistic (delete as appropriate), but a few decades, probably.

[makeourfuture]

I would image that assisted suicide will at some point become available.

[rainandfire]

I'm not sure lweji - think back to 1997 with no one having a mobile, and now.

It's very rapid change.