By Alec Hogg
This is not the time for populist political leadership. Which doesn’t mean it won’t happen. Because with machines grabbing jobs from humans, rarely have circumstances been more weighted towards selfish fear-mongers.
The only rational response to the Fourth Industrial Revolution is education: encouraging people to up-skill; to switch away from manual labour; to focus on that which humans will always do better than inanimate objects. Instead, populist politicians have become sirens of doom by calling for tighter labour legislation, higher minimum wages, greater “protection” of workers.
Logic tells us this approach will end in tears. History proves it. The Roman Empire faced a similar dilemma. Fearful of social unrest which mass unemployment would bring, its Emperors resisted labour-saving technology. Typified in a refusal to convert ships to wind power, sticking instead to oar-pulling galleys. And we all know how that story ended.
Technology waits for no man. It helps Davids topple Goliaths. It overturns the status quo. The reaction by elites to Brexit shows much of Big Business and Big Government have yet to absorb that reality. Bigger is not better. The future belongs to the nimble. To the humble. Not the arrogant.
From Biznews community member Henk Swanepoel
Listening to BBC in the background and they are ‘surprised’ that the
markets have calmed down and are positive again after Brexit. Oh the
scaremongers I tell you.
