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WORKSMART

else along a similar line. Even today, self-driving invention of social media platforms has created
cars are semi-operational, and with the amount the job of Social Media Manager, which is a

of research funding that is currently being position that would not have been close to
invested into making fully functional self-driving existing even 20 years ago. And returning to
vehicles not just a reality, but the norm, sooner the example of the industrial revolution - this
rather than later, it seems logical to suggest that is a development which created an enormous
by the 2050s the vast majority of driving jobs will number of new employment opportunities in
be done by robots, not humans. factories and mills, while eradicating many of the

existing jobs in farming and agriculture.
NO-ONE IS SAFE!
By no means is this a phenomenon which is However, the sheer scale of the automations

unique to the automotive industry. Across all which will almost certainly come over the next
industries and all walks of life, the expectation few decades, may present a challenge of the like
is that robots will be doing the jobs that people we have not seen before. For example, a 2015
currently do, within the next few decades. study by the Bank of England estimated that

nearly 50% of the UK’s workforce risk having
For example, a 2019 study by Oxford Economics their job automated away, with those most
found that 20 million jobs in the manufacturing vulnerable working in admin, manufacturing,

industry alone could be automated away before clerical, care, and customer service jobs.
2030, and that many of the people working
these jobs would then tend to seek employment CRISIS MANAGEMENT
in related industries which are also highly AND FREE MONEY FOR ALL
vulnerable to automation. With so many people at risk of having not just
their jobs, but their careers, automated away,
In truth, this scenario of widespread global job the next question that arises is, ‘how do we
losses is not as cataclysmic as it may appear, respond to this?’
because ever since capitalism has become the

primary method by which human societies have One potential solution which has gained support
organised their economies, innovations and from people on all sides of the political spectrum,
technological advancements have created new is the idea of a universal basic income (UBI).
employment opportunities, as well as eliminating UBI can be defined as, ‘a model for providing all
existing ones. citizens of a country or other geographic area
with a given sum of money, regardless of their
A commonly cited example of this, is how the income, resources or employment status,’ while

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