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posted by takyon on Wednesday February 14 2018, @03:33AM   Printer-friendly
from the nostradamus dept.

Bain consultants' macro trends department have released a report examining trends in demographics, automation and inequality to produce a set of predictions.

This kind of report seems to be all over the place these days, but this one seems more detailed and perhaps a little less optimistic than most.

In the US, a new wave of investment in automation could stimulate as much as $8 trillion in incremental investments and abruptly lift interest rates. By the end of the 2020s, automation may eliminate 20% to 25% of current jobs, hitting middle- to low-income workers the hardest. As investments peak and then decline—probably around the end of the 2020s to the start of the 2030s—anemic demand growth is likely to constrain economic expansion, and global interest rates may again test zero percent. Faced with market imbalances and growth-stifling levels of inequality, many societies may reset the government's role in the marketplace.

They predict that governments will assume a larger role in markets to combat inequality and boost demand, but will our corporate overlords decide that's in their interests, or continue to squeeze the lower and middle classes forever?

Related: Humans Are Underrated
Douglas Coupland: "The Nine to Five is Barbaric"
Survey Says AI Will Exceed Human Performance in Many Occupations Within Decades
More Than 70% of US Fears Robots Taking Over Our Lives, Survey Finds
The Future of Work Is Uncertain, Schools Should Worry Now
The Venus Project and the Quest for a Socially Engineered Future
Skilled Manufacturing Workers in Demand in the U.S.


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  • (Score: 2) by ewk on Wednesday February 14 2018, @03:19PM (1 child)

    by ewk (5923) on Wednesday February 14 2018, @03:19PM (#637613)

    In the (really) big picture nothing is important...

    We (as a species) are not going to leave this rock anyway, so this is where we (as a species) will end.

    That some of us might enjoy (or not) their individual moves on the board does not make it a zero-sum game any less.

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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday February 15 2018, @01:35AM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Thursday February 15 2018, @01:35AM (#637998) Journal

    We (as a species) are not going to leave this rock anyway,

    Unless, of course, we do.

    That some of us might enjoy (or not) their individual moves on the board does not make it a zero-sum game any less.

    Actually, it does. It is fulfilling a want that doesn't require someone else to lose something.