Well, the gap between rich and poor is only going to increase.
The reason being is that technology rewards skilled labor and reduces
those who are unskilled to the poorest class of society. Allow me to
explain.
How the skilled are rewarded: In a technology driven society, the
business climate and technology itself is constantly in flux. Basically
it is adapt or die. As such, people with skills generally are able to
survive in this environment as they can adjust to these fluctuations on the
fly. So skilled people who specialize in computers, using computer
programs or repurposing techniques and technologies become the upper middle
class and higher. In addition, people who once worked the dull, the dirty
and dangerous jobs are slowly being supplanted by either new methods of doing
those jobs, or those jobs becoming outmoded due to technological changes.
Case in point is the robots working an assembly line as opposed to
traditional workers. But this too rewards skilled labor.
Blacksmiths, carpenters and others who make things by hand can know sell
their wares at much higher prices due to the fact that what they sell is hand
made. Their skills allow them to create novelties that fetch much higher
prices at markets and thus makes them richer as well.
The Unskilled: On the other hand we have the
unskilled. Those who are just starting out in the workforce, and without
any particular skill set. These people get assigned menial jobs that pay
very little and thus they are relegated to a less fulfilling existence. As
such, these people are the new working poor. Until they find a skill of
some sort or they move up the corporate ladder (something that becomes much
harder with the slow decline of middle managers) they will always be on minimum
wage. Hence why skilled labor makes the big money, while the unskilled
will not.
Conclusion: We are in the start of a new
industrial revolution that will see the rise of new methods of manufacturing
and greater standards of living. However, it comes at the cost of many
people becoming poor first to get there. So my best advice to you my
readers is find something you are skilled at and embrace it while you can, you
never know if that skill will save you from obscurity.
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