The Information Age may present difficulties for the captains of industry … By replacing more and more workers with machines, employers will eventually come up against the two economic Achilles’ heels of the Information Age. The first is a simple problem of supply and demand: If mass numbers of people are underemployed or unemployed, who’s going to buy the flood of products and services being churned out? The second Achilles’ heel for business – and one never talked about – is the effect on capital accumulation when vast numbers of employees are let go or hired on a temporary basis so that employers can avoid paying out benefits – especially pension fund benefits. As it turns out, pension funds, now worth more than $5 trillion in the United States alone, keep much of the capitalist system afloat.
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: ”The Information Age may present difficulties for the captains of industry … By replacing more and more workers with machines, employers will eventually come up against the two economic Achilles’ heels of the Information Age. The first is a simple problem of supply and demand: If mass numbers of people are underemployed or unemployed, who’s going to buy the flood of products and services being churned out? The second Achilles’ heel for business – and one never talked about – is the effect on capital accumulation when vast numbers of employees are let go or hired on a temporary basis so that employers can avoid paying out benefits – especially pension fund benefits. As it turns out, pension funds, now worth more than $5 trillion in the United States alone, keep much of the capitalist system afloat.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Economic structures
Subtopic: General
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 125
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne