I think I read
a few decades ago a science fiction story based in the far future relevant to
“welfare.” I’ve told this tale so many
times that I can’t remember if I actually read the story or if it seemed
reasonable to assume such a story should have been written.
Anyway, in this
far distant future, technology and automation have advanced to the extent that
there was very little for humans to do.
All of our basic needs were provided.
Food was produced, delivered and prepared at our tables by
automatons. Energy for heating, cooling
and transportation was abundant.
Mankind had nothing to worry about except to enjoy the ocean breezes,
play golf, crochet, and be entertained.
Of course, if
you wanted to work, there were opportunities.
(I do believe that there are people who like to work.) There is always a
need to fix a super-robotic thingamagig that only a human could do. In fact, there was a cultural competition to
decide who – among those who wanted to work – could. Most people didn’t.
They’d rather relax and shoot their AK-47 simulators at a fake target of
1st graders.
As productivity
goes up because of automation, the jobs where humans excel over robots
diminish. Why should we be surprised at
growing unemployment when the aim of progress is to make mankind irrelevant?
Picking cotton?
– we have a machine to do that.
Planting corn? – there is a machine to do that. Putting a fender on a Chevy? – there is a machine to do that.
Weave a blanket? - there is a
machine to do that. The course of the
future is that there will be less and less for a human to do.
Is this the aim of
progress? To decrease the drudgery of
life and increase to opportunity to enjoy it?
What does this imply for the height of the bar for “enjoyment?”
Anyway, we
should laud those on welfare, unemployment and disability for they are the harbringers of the
future.
2014 Lester C.
Welch
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