Causes and Effects of the Mechanization of the Workplace

1952 Words4 Pages

The run of human kind for more efficiency, productivity and progress may have just about start to show its dark side. For decades the universal truth was that the better we will be in those categories, the more everyone will benefit. Well, it is turning out that it may not be entirely true. This paper aims to argue and reason why we should be worried about future of workplace, its mechanization to be more specific. It is based on the fact that World has technologically evolved and mechanized in the past decades and some jobs are inevitably gone. We do know that those jobs are not coming back, but what we do not know whether the economies will be able to maintain unemployment levels between 5 – 10% in the long-term under such conditions, taking into account the world population more than twice as large as 50 years ago. In the first part, this paper we will examine the beginning of this phenomenon and its roots and the consequences it had so far in the real world. In the end, based on facts collected and knowledge gathered, potential solutions, of this possibly next great structural shift in labor, will be presented.
The reason why we need to discuss this issue, is mainly because the problem may be deeply rooted to the modern business & entrepreneurial attitude and philosophy, which hasn’t changed much since industrial revolution: human economic thinking (competitiveness), technological progress and productivity. Europe and United States are two, most affected parts of the world by mechanization and automation, as both are on a similar level of economic and technological development and wealth, however, in present globalized world the less developed countries will likely to follow soon, if they have not already. According to Jeremy...

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...contribute to solve this situation.

Works Cited

Kuttner, Robert. "The Declining Middle." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2014.

Mills, Frederick C. "Mechanization in Industry." NBER. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2014.

Reinert, Christopher. "Education for the Future." Education for the Future. Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, 10 July 2013. Web. 20 Apr. 2014.

Rifkin, Jeremy. "Jeremy Rifkin on Europe's Uncertain Future: The End of Work - SPIEGEL ONLINE." SPIEGEL ONLINE. N.p., 3 Aug. 2005. Web. 26 Apr. 2014.

Rotman, David. "How Technology Is Destroying Jobs | MIT Technology Review." MIT Technology Review. N.p., 12 June 2013. Web. 24 Apr. 2014.
Shah, Vivek, and Kamlesh T. Mehta. "Workforce, Information Technology and Global Unemployment." Industrial Management + Data Systems 98.5 (1998): 226-31. ProQuest. PROQUESTMS. 3 Mar. 2014

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