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Summary: Don't Judge This Book by it's Cover
Review: Jeremy Rifkin has distilled much of what is brewing below the surface in our economy and weaved it into a compelling thesis that deserves serious attention from academia and the public at large. A gifted social scientist and economist, Rifkin transcends the "Megatrends" genre, and provides us with a compelling analysis and dissection of a post-market economy that sits clearly on the horizon. Many who have read and critiqued this book have siezed upon it's liberal view for the future, however, no one has disputed the issues he has raised which clearly depict an economy where labor is in declining demand, and sophisticated computer automation will replace large sectors of our current economy. Perhaps the one flaw in Rifkin's book is that he presents a vision for the future that is polemical in its political orientation. I was deeply disturbed by Mr. Rifkin's findings, because I fear that I could easily become among the ranks of the technologically displaced. But I read this book twice, because I realized that if I am to keep ahead of the game, I need to know which way the wind is blowing, and ensure that I don't fall victim to what millions of workers are destined for in the years to come. With out a doubt, the most prescient and trenchant non-fiction book I've read in ten years.
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Summary: Malthusian Predictions
Review: Jeremy Rifkin in The End of Work has described the way in which mankind is sowing the seeds of its own destruction. Of course people have been doing this since the dawn of time. The most famous of these doomsayers is Thomas Malthus. While The End of Work is not quite as ridiculous as Malthus predictions of the population time-bomb, it still deserves to be looked at with at least as much skepticism.Rifkin has put together an interesting prognosis for a future workforce filled with labor saving machinery. He is correct in his prediction of certain manufacturing endeavors becoming more highly mechanized. Rifkin is just wrong regarding the extent to which this mechanization will infiltrate all manufacturing operations. We are still at a time, and probably will be forever, in which human labor is supremely more cost-effective than robotic labor. So long as their is an ample supply of people, there will always be an ample supply of low-cost labor. Robots are the recourse of the under-populated nation with an over-priced labor force. Currently the only country that fits this description is Japan and that is only a partial fit. Several European countries are heading toward that end, like Germany and France. Most nations, the United States included, are still very far away from such a state. Thinkers like Rifkin have put forth their predictions under the assumption that humanity is too stupid to realize that it is destroying itself. The only reason that companies would use robotic labor is to increase profits. To have profits you need consumers. Consumers are only able to consume because they have income. Their labor is the commodity by which they earn income. Without labor they cannot have income. It is highly doubtful that manufacturing industries would allow the total destruction of human manufacturing labor as this would eliminate the very consumers that they need to make profits. After all, machines can't buy things.
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Summary: Nothing MUCH HERE
Review: Nothing much here, just a economic writer throwing data after data to comprobe his theories about the doom of mankind ...
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Summary: Pessismistic view of the future - Interesting, but flawed.
Review: Pessimistic view of the future, where technology has eliminated most jobs as we know them. He sees downsizing as a trend which will continue into the future. It is, indeed, true that "jobs", as we remember them, are a thing of the past (cf. Wm Bridges, J. Bardwick, J. Wallulis, Chas. Handy, D. Rousseau). However, Riftkin's view is unneccessarily pessimistic. He sees this trend away from "jobs" as something that may lead to anarchy or, at the very least, a de-globalization of the working world reorganized into a community-based, third sector. This premise is interesting but flawed. Rifkin fails to see the positive consequences of this important trend. Research and thought in this area does not support Rifkin's premise.
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Summary: Valuable,insightful analysis but solutions are flawed
Review: Rifkin convincingly analyzes the impact on the work force of computerization and automation. The statistics are thorough. He explains the futility of current remedies, such as retraining, to deal with increasing unemployment wordlwide. His anwers to the problems, however, in the second half of the book are, as might be expected from this author, socialism with a human face, e.g. higher taxes, coercion and confiscation
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Summary: Does technology create worker freedom or destitution?
Review: Rifkin provided a good historical examination of how technological innovations of automation, corporate reengineering, lean production, and computers have replaced the need for workers at an alarming rate culminating in what he termed "The Third Industrial Revolution". Every sector and industry has experienced significant trends in unemployment and underemployment. Although virtually every worker has been affected, African-Americans were particularly devastated as they got caught between the machanization of southern agriculture and automation in northern cities resulting in the creation of the underclass. In all, technology has undermined the worker and reconceptualized our notion of the workplace. Solutions to global worker displacement include shorter work week to share the remaining work to all workers. Rifkin also argues for investment in the third sector of volunteerism and social services to combat the rise in crime and violence that is inevitable in a society of large scale employment. Although his historical examination is admirable, his future prophecy of a massive unemployment did not convince me that we are headed to a society run by machines. Alternatively I believe there will always be demand for human labor as machines present their own limitations. Several years ago many proclaimed that dot.com's will put bricks and mortar stores out of business. Despite these claims bricks and mortar stores did not disappear partly because many customers enjoyed the personalibility of social interaction with salespeople and other customers. Doing Christmas shopping over the internet is not a comparable replacement to going to a shopping mall for everyone. In addition, Rifkin never addressed the all important realm of unpaid work that will never diminish as long as there are humans on earth. Overall, this book is a good read although I had trouble with his future predictions.
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Summary: Repetitive, chicken little theories
Review: Rifkin's book could have been referring to many instances throughout history whenever any new invention caused workers to be displaced in one job and retrained for another. This book is based on economic conditions during the early 1990s and may have been accurate for those times, but with the present day booming economy and the meteoric rise of the internet and the resulting companies and jobs created, Rifkin's work is very dated. It is apparent that Rifkin is terrified of technology.
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Summary: A worthwhile read...
Review: Rifkin's work, with a foreword from perhaps one of the most socialist mainstream economists of our day, Robert Heilbroner, of the New School for Social Research, addresses squarely the problems caused by technology replacing labor in today's rapidly changing globalized economy. Since only educated Americans read these days, fully 75%-85% of the U.S. population will never be exposed to the author's insights. Therefore, the solutions presented by Rifkin will fall on deaf ears; and perhaps, they should. Technology as the driving force for social change, as in every other epoch of modern human history, is carving out a niche for the technologically informed individuals. For the sociologists out there, is a new "class" (heaven forbid) being constituted? I think so. What will be the political, economic, and sociological result? Most likely not much different than the impacts of the past epochs: capital/wealth concentration to those individual and institutions who own and control the "means of production" (my apologies to those made nauseous by Marxist arguments) or, in this case, those who control the creation and production of information- or knowledge-based technologies (read Intel, Microsoft, Oracle, Time Warner, Disney, GE, Westinghouse). Capitalism has survived in various forms (despite Mr. Marx's assertions) for thousands of years whether in the form of feudalism, mercantilsm, imperialism, corporatism, or today's state-sponsored global corporatism. Therefore, a suggestion to all of those of the laboring classes: Why not give in? Accept benevolent corporate benefactors in the best case, or non-wage-based, total private corporate slavery in exchange for room and board, minimal disease care, and survival. Why struggle and compete against your neighbors, friends, and family members, when wage slaves can never "win" the battle against technological advancements and corporate-statist, social organization? Technologically-disenfranchised wage slaves of the world unite! Instead of the public welfare state of the last half of the twentieth century, financed primarily by regressive payroll taxes levied against the working class, accept defeat; demand benevolent, corporate socialist slavery!
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Summary: "Automation will destroy all jobs" fallacy is still alive
Review: So now it is feared that computers will destroy everyone's job. This argument is certainly not a new one. Nearly 200 years ago many feared that steampower would create too much unemployment, (remember the song about John Henry?) A french essayist, Bastiat, satired this view in the mid-1800's. With his tongue in his cheek he argued for the adoption of dull axes. Dull axes would require more strokes to cut a tree, hence creating more employment. Following this to its logical conclusion, it seems that inefficiency is good. The flaw in all this is that there is not a fixed amount of work to be done. Some people are employed giving piano lessons and decorating homes. A poor country cannot afford these luxuries, but a wealthy one can. And usually the reason why the wealthy country is wealthy, is because it is industrialized. So industrialization destroys some jobs, but creates others, but the important factor is not "job creation" but raising the standard of living. If people would take Rifkin seriously, his recommendations might lower the standard of living, so it seems he is somewhat of a menace.
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Summary: I hope he is not right.
Review: The logic behind the book is pretty consistent and he supports his assesments with reliable data. He calls indirectly for the need of political intervention to avoid the process of technification to go to far creeating an enormous underclass of technologically illiterate people all over the World. It is worth reading.
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