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Labour Wrap: Antique economic mindsets

Cape Town - Encouraged by economists - “gurus of the dismal science” - employers and trade unions have mindsets that seem stuck in the world of 100 years ago, says Terry Bell in his latest Labour Wrap. He notes that although the World economic Forum in Davos was supposed to focus on the “fourth industrial revolution”, nothing much came of this.

Even the term fourth industrial revolution, he maintains, is a misnomer; that what is now happening with the exponential advances in automation is merely the maturation of the third such revolution that began with the development of the integrated circuit, the microchip. The two previous industrial revolutions, he says, were powered first by water and steam and then by electricity.

Each of these former eras saw workers displaced from traditional labour. But other avenues opened up and, in the developed world today, there are more people employed in service industries than in manufacturing.

However, Bell maintains that this latest “revolution” is different. Because of the rapid development of technology, especially the use of artificial intelligence, it is only a matter of time before almost all human activity can be carried out by machines, by robots.

Employers, on the one hand, see this, narrowly but correctly, as advancing productivity and efficiency. However, because this will result in massive job losses within the present system, workers and their unions could see this as a threat to be halted.

Bell adds that these developments could potentially free humanity from drudgery and poverty, but only if they are truly democratically controlled and used for the benefit of all. This, he says, is the most important issue facing not just South Africa, but the world today.

* Add your voice to the big labour debate.

- Follow Terry on twitter @telbelsa.

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