52 Books, Week 30: The End of Work

Jeremy Rifkin, your favorite futurists', favorite futurist. To be fair, Time Magazine once described him as the "most hated man in science". So take your pick, either way... His late 90's book, The End of Work, describes the impact of globalization (primarily increased productivity) on the modern worker.

I bought this one a year ago, shortly after I saw him in a lecture.

The Book: Rifkin takes a fairly radical approach to economic policy recommendations, and discusses a reduced work week (4 days) to allow for a greater distribution of the spoils of 21st century capitalism.

Stolen Blurb: In this challenging report, social activist Rifkin contends that worldwide unemployment will increase as new computer-based and communications technologies eliminate tens of millions of jobs in the manufacturing, agricultural and service sectors. He traces the devastating impact of automation on blue-collar, retail and wholesale employees, with a chapter devoted to African Americans. While a small elite of corporate managers and knowledge workers reap the benefits of the high-tech global economy, the middle class continues to shrink and the workplace becomes ever more stressful, according to Rifkin. As the market economy and public sector decline, he foresees the growth of a "third sector"-voluntary and community-based service organizations-that will create new jobs with government support to rebuild decaying neighborhoods and provide social services. To finance this enterprise, he advocates scaling down the military budget, enacting a value-added tax on nonessential goods and services and redirecting federal and state funds to provide a "social wage" in lieu of welfare payments to third-sector workers.

Should You: If you're interested in public policy I would say yeah, check it out. The ideas are interesting enough, and will generate some new thinking (hopefully). Now implementation??? In America??? I don't think Rifkin himself can see that future.