In the future, only a few will have a job or earn money

[DARPA]

In its heyday in 1988, the iconic American manufacturer of photographic equipment Kodak had a staff of 145 thousand employees. In 2012, Kodak filed for bankruptcy. In the same year, in the modern world of photo Instagram labor of 13 employees who served 30 million. Customers.

The ratio of producers and customers continues to decline. Last year, when Facebook bought the messaging application

WhatsApp for $ 19 billion, to WhatsApp employed 55 people servicing the 450 million customers.

Recently living in Tucson American invented a machine capable of finding the particle in the air of some elements. He has already sold hundreds of these devices over the Internet to customers around the world. Apparatuses he produces in his garage using 3D printer. So far, all of his business depends on only one person - from himself.

New technologies not only displace human labor, they and knowledge. The combination of advanced sensors, voice recognition, artificial intelligence, "big data" text mining and pattern recognition algorithms generates intelligent robots able to quickly learn human actions and even learn from each other.

If you think that your career is not in danger because you "professional" - think again.

Two sectors of the economy, to assemble the largest number of professionals - health and education - are now under increasing pressure to cut costs. A machine-experts are ready to take the place of people.

Soon the world will engulf wave of medical applications in which it will be possible to measure everything from cholesterol to blood pressure, and with them come the diagnostic program, decrypts the data and advises what to do with.

In the coming years, software applications will perform many of the things that today make doctors, nurses and technicians (for example, ultrasound, computed tomography and an electrocardiogram).

Meanwhile, the fall off the need for many teachers and university professors who will replace online courses and interactive online tutorials. How will it end?

Imagine a small box - let's call it "iVsё" - capable of producing all that we could wish, like modern lamp of Aladdin.

You just need to tell the device what you need, and - voila - the desired object at your feet.

In addition, "iVsё" takes everything what a man wants. He can do massage, bring sneaker, wash, pat and fold the laundry. "IVsё" will be the best device ever invented. The only problem is that no one will buy it, because no one will be no way to make money, as "iVsё" will fulfill all human work.

This, of course, just a fantasy, but when fewer and fewer people can perform more and more tasks, profit from it receives only narrows the range of managers and owners-investors.

When the company bought Facebook WhatsApp, one of the young founders of the latter, CEO Yang Kum, had 45 percent of the company, the sale of which brought him 6.8 billion. Dollars. Co-founder Brian Acton received 3 billion. Dollars for its 20 percent stake. According to reports, each one for a long time worked in WhatsApp employees had 1 percent of the company, who allegedly brought to 160 mln. USD each.

Meanwhile, when machines replace human, all that remains for most of us - is to do the only thing that can not technology - provide human attention and care about other people. But for such human performance pay is not very much.

This means that most people will be less money to buy goods and services from a dazzling range of new technologies, because these same technologies will displace people from their jobs and will result in wage cuts.

We need a new economic model. In the twentieth century was dominated by the economic model based on mass production, to carry out a large number of people for mass consumption.

Workers were consumers; consumers were workers. Salary increases and people had more money to buy what they produce and other people - for example the camera Kodak. As a result, there are more jobs, and increased wages.

Now this virtuoso cycle falls to pieces. Future, carrying with them an almost unlimited production by a small group of people for sale to anyone who can afford to buy this product - it's a recipe for economic and social collapse.

But the main problem of the future will not be the number of jobs. The problem will be - and already is - in the distribution of income and wealth.

What to do?

Today, politicians try to avoid the word "redistribution." But the economy, to which we are so rapidly rushing - where more and more products created everything fewer people, which gets almost all the profits, and the rest do not have enough purchasing power - are not able to function.

Perhaps the only way to make the economy of the future work will be a redistribution of income and wealth from the wealthy owners of revolutionary technologies to other people.

About the Author. Robert Reich - American political economist, professor, writer, and political commentator. Reich collaborated with three presidential administrations - under Presidents John. Ford, J.. Carter and Bill Clinton.