Rating: 
Summary: My Radical Point of View
Review: The title of this book should be My Radical Point of View. Although I did enjoy this book and the decade by decade review of the history of the American workforce and its laws, I found Mr. Rifkin's views quite radical even in the post 9/11 economy. It is very difficult to believe that the world will become a workerless society as the author would like us to believe. There will always be the need for people to fix the machines that Mr Rifkin believes will replace humans. He also does not address one of the largest employers of people that will never be in the technology age, the healthcare industry.Our society and economy will always have its ups and downs, but it has always recovered. Since 9/11 most of the jobs that were eliminated were technology positions. This is in direct contrast with the main idea of the book. It would be naive to believe that technolgy has not replaced humans because of the advances in machinery and computers, but to the extent The End of Work would like us to believe is foolish. Hopefully there will be a sequel to this book in 20 years to see how correct Mr. Rifkins views are, but I would tend to believe we will still all have jobs and not be out of work.
Rating:
Summary: My Radical Point of View
Review: The title of this book should be My Radical Point of View. Although I did enjoy this book and the decade by decade review of the history of the American workforce and its laws, I found Mr. Rifkin's views quite radical even in the post 9/11 economy. It is very difficult to believe that the world will become a workerless society as the author would like us to believe. There will always be the need for people to fix the machines that Mr Rifkin believes will replace humans. He also does not address one of the largest employers of people that will never be in the technology age, the healthcare industry. Our society and economy will always have its ups and downs, but it has always recovered. Since 9/11 most of the jobs that were eliminated were technology positions. This is in direct contrast with the main idea of the book. It would be naive to believe that technolgy has not replaced humans because of the advances in machinery and computers, but to the extent The End of Work would like us to believe is foolish. Hopefully there will be a sequel to this book in 20 years to see how correct Mr. Rifkins views are, but I would tend to believe we will still all have jobs and not be out of work.
Rating: 
Summary: Engrossing and convincing
Review: This book is a must for anyone interested in an easy to follow, in depth, unbiased study of current and past labor trends as well as the silent revolution that is currently forever altering those trends. The central conclusion of the analysis is that with the increasing role of "smart" machines and other labor saving innovations, globalization, societal overemphasis on consumerism, trends toward conglomerates, and other factors, massive groups of workers are slowly (and as quietly as possible) being obsoleted. Lines of work drying up is nothing new, but historically, workers who were obsoleted could find new jobs in a different sector. Here, Rifkin convincingly argues that that for the first time there are no longer sectors available to swallow up the obsoleted workers. The only possiblity, the highly touted "information" sector, is shown to lack the ability to accept the influx of workers contrary to the pronouncements of numerous giddy prognosticators. Though the book was written in the early 90's, more recent events (the recent flurry of dot-com layoffs, increasing consolidation in numerous sectors, etc.) certainly support Rivkin's bleak view. Pessimistic though it may seem, Rivkin's analysis seems hard to refute, and he does offer some sensible ways in which the situation might be improved.
Rating: 
Summary: Rifkin is a neo-Malthusian
Review: This book was ok in that it did a good job in describing workplace dislocations caused by new technology, but in many ways, its the same old situation. If one is looking for a very clearly articulated portrayal of these dislocations in the modern time, then one will like this book. I disagree with all of the doom and gloom, however. This sort of doom and gloom reminded me of the Malthus's writings about overpopulation and fears of machinery in the late 19th century, both of which I view as very discredited observations. There will always be dislocations as result of technological progress; and as tragic as it is, one cannot progress without rendering something obsolete. But we are nowhere near a post-market nor a post-scarcity era.
Rating:
Summary: Rifkin is a neo-Malthusian
Review: This book was ok in that it did a good job in describing workplace dislocations caused by new technology, but in many ways, its the same old situation. If one is looking for a very clearly articulated portrayal of these dislocations in the modern time, then one will like this book. I disagree with all of the doom and gloom, however. This sort of doom and gloom reminded me of the Malthus's writings about overpopulation and fears of machinery in the late 19th century, both of which I view as very discredited observations. There will always be dislocations as result of technological progress; and as tragic as it is, one cannot progress without rendering something obsolete. But we are nowhere near a post-market nor a post-scarcity era.
Rating:
Summary: TERROR !! DESTRUCTION !! BEWARE !!!
Review: THis is another "prophetical" book about the economic end of the world. I don't care if everything the author says will be true. One thin I know for sure: the companies are fireing their employess at will, while their profits keep on growing and growing all the time. Why they do that ? Because capitalçism has put down his mask and shown what it really is. Unfortunately, nobody has shown us a better form to live economically, so each one of us must do our best to survive without depending upon the god damned companies !!!
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