In his book, the War on Normal People, Andrew Yang addresses the elephant in the room. What will the employment landscape look like in our near future?
He describes a paradigm shift that began in the 1970’s and early 1980’s in which, “…a company exists only to maximize its share price…” and how advances in communication and a globalization mindset initiated the outsourcing of American jobs. Fast forward to today, and he details a long devastated manufacturing sector, the dying of the brick and mortal retail market, and foretells how technology will soon impact white collar jobs as well.
According to Andy, the future looks pretty bleak. However, he provides some insights on how we can deal with this troubled future (including a discussion on Universal Basic Income). Whether you agree or not with the solutions presented, I think the book does a fantastic job in describing the negative impacts of automation and a disregard for “human capital”.