A book published this year, titled “PEOPLE
GET READY: The Fight Against
a Jobless Economy and a Citizenless Democracy” by Robert W. McChesney
and John Nichols, describes the future as being upon us already and that the
technological revolution is going to surprise us not only because of its speed of
development, but because we are not ready for it. “There is a very good
possibility that automation is so different in degree as to be profoundly
different in kind; that it poses unique problems for society by challenging
patterns of work, education, manufacturing and distribution.”
We have been told a lot of things by politicians, but
much of it is classic bamboozling.
Several publications and writers have been trying to get at these issues,
but I have chosen to make extensive use of People
Get Ready because it is an excellent book about the digital age and
automation, about technology and technological change. But the real focus is on capitalism and
politics, and on the "fundamental question of how to bring the rest of us into
the process of shaping a future that cannot be well or wisely shaped by the
CEOs and bankers and bottom-line speculators who are now calling the shots.”
The future is now. Reuters informs us about something many may
be reluctant to believe: driverless automobiles (or whatever we shall deign
to call the new 21st century versions!). You may well have heard already about installed
sensors on some cars that prevent swerving into other lanes, or automatically
apply brakes to prevent accidents. But
-- robots
driving cars…?
“Uber is steering its driverless vehicle technology
towards a crash between robots and jobs, unleashing driverless taxis in
Pittsburgh. Putting computers instead of humans behind the wheel could save
lives, but would automate a task that employs millions of U.S. workers.
America’s safety net is ill-prepared for such a job-destroying juggernaut while
dozens of companies are racing to develop driverless technology.
Boston Consulting Group has estimated that fully
autonomous vehicles could reduce traffic accidents by 90 percent or more. That
would avoid hundreds of billions of dollars of injuries, vehicle damage and
lost productivity caused by traffic accidents, which kill more than 30,000
Americans each year.”
Did you know that there are already international
conventions related to drone technology,
legalities and sales? I just learned
that Central New York and the Mohawk Valley will host an international
convention this fall that will attract hundreds of the world's top drone
researchers from business, government and academia. The 2016 UTM Convention,
which stands for Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management, will be held from Nov. 8 to 10. UTM is a
comprehensive research effort led by the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration. NASA has been leading research into how to manage an expected
boom in air traffic from the operation of low-altitude unmanned aerial systems,
or drones, across the nation, and will be releasing findings from research it
is currently conducting.
While drone deliveries of products to front doors are
already happening experimentally, the future of this technological wonder is
certainly almost boundless. To put an
exclamation point on the word “boundless”, consider this outrageous thought:
such things as robotics, driverless cars, computers like Watson, and even 3D
printing are all simply the warm-up
act for what is to come in the next three decades!
“Young men
really are inserting grain-of-rice-sized microchips in their fingers in order
to unlock doors and start cars – hoping that they will increase their
employment prospects. Fast-food
restaurants really are taking orders with apps (‘centralized ordering systems’
that could ‘make cashiers redundant’) and preparing them with robots
(‘automated kitchen equipment’).
Multinational corporations really are investing in global knowledge-sharing
schemes that openly propose to replace universities and community colleges…with
distance-learning ‘certificate’ programs that train workers for a task, not a
career.”
The authors of PEOPLE GET READY make it
clear that we are “not in charge” of this revolution that is taking
place. It is a time of “power
inequality”, where the “ability to determine what the future will look like and
feel like and sound like and taste like is concentrated in fewer and fewer
hands. Every decision about our lives
that matters is being made by a corporate CEO or campaign donor or a programmer
or a hacker or someone else we have never met.
The politicians themselves have become rubberstamps for the trade deals,
tax rates, and deregulations demanded by an enriched and empowered one-tenth of
one percent. The rest of us are mere
spectators.”
It is simply amazing what chronic “deniers” some
politicians have come to be. But denial
may not be the only problem. It appears that a large number of our
so-called leaders are both deniers and procrastinators, depending on the prevailing
winds at crucial times. One thing is
clear: many of our representatives in
government are simply failing to do the jobs to which they were elected and instead
are carrying out missions that they have constructed for their own
self-aggrandizement. I do not exclude
any political party from this scenario, but I find it hard to deny that the
Republican Party is in power at every level, and upon them must be placed the
major blame for the pending debacles: drastic, perhaps unbearable climate
change, a crumbling and totally inadequate infrastructure, as well as the
massive unemployment that will be caused by the technological revolution.
The deniers and procrastinators may well be putting us
all in jeopardy by continually ‘assuring’ us, for instance, that climate
change is but a passing ‘phase of nature.’ But, what if they are wrong? Just to play it safe, shouldn’t our
representatives, on behalf of their constituents, at least investigate the
effects of all that is happening environmentally to the people they supposedly
represent. Denial and procrastination
are bad enough, but the absolute ignoring of voter concerns and voter safety is
the ultimate betrayal of representative democracy.
It is my contention that way too many of our
representatives (and office-seekers) do not represent anyone but their sponsors
and their contributors, many of whom do not even reside in their
districts. Too many represent special
business (or other) interests that are given priority before constituent needs
are even considered. There is one very
potent reason why we have denial and procrastination running rampant in the
Congress: because democracy meant to
work for ‘The People’ is now purposefully designed to serve business and
industry and commerce, and the financial concerns of Wall Street bankers and financial
managers.
It is variously estimated that there are, in our
nation, millions of chronically unemployed; who have stopped looking for work,
can’t find a job, or are in the process of accepting a non-working or part-time
role, but they are not counted as part of the rate of unemployment. We are told to blame manufacturing industries
that have moved overseas, or an education system that is not training future
employees for a changing economy, or too much government spending, or too
little investment in the private sector.
Whatever we are told by politicians, the whole truth
is not being told. For instance, has any
politician impressed upon you that the rate of growth in American capitalism
has been on a downward trend
for a good five decades (50 years), and that this process has accelerated in
this new century? Have you heard that
economists across the political spectrum now “speak openly of the U.S. economy
as being in a period of long-term…stagnation?”
Indeed, it has been pointed out that private investment, “which is at
the heart and soul of a capitalist economy has been declining as a percentage
of Gross Domestic Product.”
It is virtually impossible for most of us to conceive
of a society with extremely high unemployment, or of a society without enough
jobs to employ everyone who qualifies, simply because we have come to believe
certain axioms and myths that can potentially block our ability to deal with a
new reality.
Urged on by corporate public relations, these and
other popular axioms and myths hold sway among the populace and they help define
what people believe is good or bad about the economy, and about
governance. Here are a few examples
of basic conservative beliefs that are promoted endlessly by the conservative
elite, the conservative media and their conservative cronies in the Congress.
“The American
Dream – that anyone, given the chance or opportunity, can actually achieve
wealth, position or status that is not so likely elsewhere.
Or, how about the myth that if you follow the rules, make every effort to
educate yourself, and work hard, that you will succeed in life?
Or how about the ever-popular: hard work is good; leisure is bad (the ‘Devil’s playground’);
or, how about: government Welfare promotes dependence?
Here are a few more “constructs” being used by the
Right-wing to manipulate your vote and your wallet:
·
Government simply screws things up by an
endless barrage of counterproductive regulations. A ‘caged’ democracy with a limited mandate is
best
·
Such regulations and ‘interference’ are
often referred to as being ‘socialistic’ or even ‘communistic’ which expresses fear
of the ‘masses’ long-held by the elite class.
It is why many elite throughout history have detested ‘democracy.’
·
To protect freedoms (particularly private
property rights), to preserve law and order, to enforce private contracts, and
to foster competitive markets is their idea of a limited mandate per the
Constitution. Anything more is fraught
with danger and invites ‘tyranny’.
·
Governance is best left to those who fully
appreciate that the needs of investors come first and are foremost. And that is most likely to happen if most
everyone else tunes out politics and focuses on other matters, and worries
about (real and imagined) threats like foreign countries, immigrants
(especially Muslim immigrants), viruses, crime, and gay marriage.
·
Change, in general, should be seen as
seasonal, temporary, cyclical, so don’t worry about it. Just go on believing the myths, as
corporations and CEOs want you to do, because it is to their advantage and
profit to silence the voices of discontent, reform, or, God forbid, of
revolution. Support profit made from
fossil fuels, hydro-fracking, and mining coal; dumping chemicals into air and
water, making cars and trucks that produce limited miles per gallon, blame
Obamacare for rising health costs instead of private insurance and drug companies,
who all push the prices higher by manipulation of the governance and health care
system.
·
Besides, if you stay out of the way and
let the CEO’s run the ship, enough of those profits will ‘trickle down’ to you
to enable you to live the “good life.”
Many of us fall willingly into this well-concealed and
well-baited trap constructed by Corporate America. Because of these strongly promoted myths, we
are unprepared to face the dawning of a new era -- that of technological
revolution.
Here now are some examples of what we are facing, due
to our buy-in to conservative ideology, and to rapid advances in technology, most
of which are being ignored by our congressional representatives, who prefer to
investigate non-problems of their own making, such as ben Ghazi and Planned
Parenthood:
- “Capitalism
as we know it and governance as we know it are ill-prepared to define the
future in favor of humanity”
- “The
unemployment, poverty, and calamity resulting from the merger of the
profit system with the coming wave of automation will be the defining
issue of the coming decades, yet the “one and only time in American history
that automation and employment were formally studied and considered by an
official government commission was in 1964-1966 when President Johnson
formally created the National Commission on Technology, Automation and
Economic Progress to examine the issues and file a report” which it did in
1966. The radical Right-wing Republican-controlled
Congress of today has little or nothing but mythical axioms to offer on
the matter. Donald Trump has declared that he loves such vast destructive
possibilities because they open up many new opportunities for profit.
- countless
hard-edged business executives and boards of directors across the world
are engaged in discussing the coming changes, not in terms of how human
beings will be affected, but as “creative destruction” from which will
emerge tremendous opportunities to cut costs and increase profits
- “the
transition to this new era will likely be marked by social upheaval the
likes of which has only rarely been seen; an already troubling situation
is about to get considerably worse”
- A Harvard
economist, Edward L. Glaeser, wrote a paper in 2014 in which he said that
America’s most worrying social trend was the 40-year rise in the number
and share of jobless adults. But
what comes next will be an explosion of automation that “will eliminate
millions of additional jobs”
- A broad
assessment of unemployment, including people who are no longer seeking
employment (the ‘hidden unemployed’) reveals that the employment situation
is not simply a function of a short-term boom-and-bust business cycle, but
instead a longer-term problem of stagnation in which recoveries after
downturns now take longer and recessions grow more severe and
longer-lasting.
- The economy
is generating fewer middle-class jobs and an increasing proportion of
available jobs provide incomes at poverty levels (this is also a
phenomenon across all sixteen EU nations)
- Since the
1970’s, worker output has grown, in some cases sharply, but wages have
stagnated
- “The emerging
automation wave that (some have) called attention to, is going to replace
millions of jobs and alter the nature of many of those jobs that
remain. University of Pennsylvania
sociologist Randall Collins expects an actual unemployment rate in the
neighborhood of 50 percent.” While
such predictions strike the authors as somewhat extreme, at the very
least, they say, “what is about to transpire is going to put severe
downward pressure on wages and working conditions, which already are
deplorable.”
- At best, say the authors, “we can hope for ‘under-employment’ where men and women work part-time; accept jobs far below their skill level; or else undertake unskilled work of the sort traditionally assigned to immigrants.
Something our so-called leaders have also basically ignored,
or have attempted to diminish, is essential to our future actions. There is what the authors call a “democratic
infrastructure” without which an advanced economy – no matter its
particular construct – cannot exist. “It
involves the institutions, instruments and procedures provided by the state
that render the use of democratic rights possible.” This involves not only the right to vote, but
all of the Bill of Rights, plus:
- effective
elections where there is genuine competition and one person-one vote is
the order of the day
- stringent
limits on money in politics
- limits on
the power of the Judiciary to act in an arbitrary and unaccountable
manner
- the ability
to launch effective new parties or associations
- free trade
unions with effective collective bargaining
- open,
transparent governance
- a credible,
independent and uncensored free press/media
- universal
free schools with civic education
- a basic
level of social security, limited only by the overall productive capacity
of the society
- an environment that can sustain and nurture life
“When a democratic
infrastructure is dynamic and growing, notions of fairness, justice,
egalitarianism and public service are respected and widespread. Trust increases. Provocative new ideas are put in play and
subject to debate.
When the democratic
infrastructure is weak or in decline, the political culture shrivels,
self-interest reigns, and demoralization and pessimism ascend. After four decades of relentless attack on
the democratic infrastructure, it has severely shrunk in the United States today,
and much of what remains is in jeopardy… aggravated by a pathetic and corrupt
political response. It is here, on this
battlefield…that the outcome will determine whose future it will be…
It is where those
concerned about how America responds to the jobs crisis we are facing must turn
their attention. In a time of crisis, it
means everything.”
And so we come to the major reason why denial and
procrastination, reluctance to problem-solve and the overall tendency to
protect business enterprises prevail -- We no longer possess a
representative democracy. We
now possess a protective, industrial-financial oriented plutocracy that exists
for very different reasons than originally envisioned in the ‘democratic
infrastructure.’. Instead, conservative
mythology has taken over and placed all of us in jeopardy as we face the
present and emerging future because they believe:
“The main job of
governance is to make sure that the profit system works smoothly, contracts and
private property are respected and enforced, the dispossessed are kept in line,
and, if there is an economic crisis, the government intervenes as necessary to
make it lucrative for businesses and wealthy individuals to invest again. Big government is A-OK when it advances the
interests of capital… small government is the order of the day. Governance is best when it is left to those
who fully appreciate that the needs of investors come first and foremost. And that is most likely to happen if most
everyone else tunes out politics and focuses on other matters.” The Plutocracy
generally endorses this conservative viewpoint and works at all governmental
levels to exert its influence to bring their concerns, and this pro-business
ideology, to the forefront of governance.”
According to the authors, “The one thing Americans are
in overwhelming agreement on, in poll after poll and election result after
election result, is that neither major party has a plan for the future.” While
Pope Francis counsels that ‘contemporary man has not been trained to use power
well,’ few political figures have thought deeply enough about the issues to
recognize, as the Pope did in his 2015 encyclical, that ‘our immense
technological development has not been accompanied by a development in human
responsibility, values and conscience’.”
The book’s Introduction concludes: “We the people are
the only force that can make a future worthy of our hopes and our
humanity. And our tool is the only tool
that has ever taken the power to define the future away from the elites and
given it to the whole of humanity: democracy.”
“The point is to shape progress, not as customers or consumers,
not as clicks to be counted or employees struggling to synch ourselves into
automated workplaces, but as citizens engaged in a democratic process of
organizing a new economy that reflects our values and our needs.” The purposes of Labor Day demand no less. Our
future destiny demands further exploration of what can be done by government to
advance not just industries, but human values, responsibility and involvement.
