Even if thousands of new products come along, they are likely to be manufactured in near-workerless factories and marketed by near-virtual companies requiring ever-smaller, more highly skilled workforces. This steady decline of mass labor threatens to undermine the very foundation of the modern American state. For nearly 200 years, the heart of the social contract and the measure of individual human worth have centered on the value of each person’s labor. How does society even begin to adjust to a new era in which labor is devalued or even rendered worthless?
Predictor: Rifkin, Jeremy
Prediction, in context:The 1997 book “Computers, Ethics, and Society,” edited by M. David Ermann, Mary B. Williams and Michele S. Shauf, carries a reprint of the 1995 Mother Jones magazine article “Will There Be a Job for Me in the New Information Age?” by Jeremy Rifkin. Rifkin suggests that the Information Age is fundamentally transforming the American economy. He writes: ”Even if thousands of new products come along, they are likely to be manufactured in near-workerless factories and marketed by near-virtual companies requiring ever-smaller, more highly skilled workforces. This steady decline of mass labor threatens to undermine the very foundation of the modern American state. For nearly 200 years, the heart of the social contract and the measure of individual human worth have centered on the value of each person’s labor. How does society even begin to adjust to a new era in which labor is devalued or even rendered worthless?”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Economic structures
Subtopic: Employment
Name of publication: Computers, Ethics, and Society (book)
Title, headline, chapter name: Will There Be a Job for Me in the New Information Age?
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Page 124
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne