What will my children’s future be like? It is a question that we all ponder as parents, sometimes with hope, sometimes with fear. Today I want to explore what it means for my child to have meaningful employment in the future. We are in a time of such continuing rapid technological change that we may start to wonder if humans will be needed for work at all. Just this week there have been reports about increasing automation or increasing use of computers in jobs that we once thought would never be touched, that could only ever be done by humans. We’ve also heard so much lately about driver-less cars. Imagine all the people who will be unemployed – long haul truckers, taxi drivers, bus drivers, and the list goes on. In the United States, the promise is being made of bringing jobs back to America in the steel and coal industry, and yet the truth is that many of these jobs have not been lost to other countries but to technology. Now this has happened before, when we moved from horse and buggy to motorized vehicles, but it is now happening at a more rapid pace.
So what do we hope for our children? Will they have work? Do those old enough have work now? In a society where having money to pay for necessities such as food, shelter, and medicine is tied to employment, it is a huge question to ponder. Are we, and our children, just at the mercy of technological advances? Or is there something we can do to shape the society we want for our children?
First of all, there are no easy answers to this situation, but one of the things we do as faithful people, as followers of the Way of Jesus, is consider the impact of decisions and “solutions” on other people. It is all part of our commitment to love God, love neighbour, love enemy & stranger and love self. The First Nations’ tradition asks, “How will this decision impact the next seven generations?” That’s another way of thinking about it. Here are some of the questions and ideas I’m pondering in relation to the issue of whether my children will have employment and money upon which to live:
-Why do we believe that we have to increase automation and use of technology? It really is a factory model that we are using to view life; if something can be done easier, more efficiently and for less money we should do it that way. The good result of automation and technological advance is that we, as consumers, pay less for items we buy. A car made on an assembly line using automation is definitely more affordable than one that is made totally by hand. However, we need to also ask ourselves whether all the cost savings are worth it. Is there a balance somewhere in between? Do we need to buy less and pay more for what we buy so that more people can have a sustainable living? I love a great deal as much as anyone, but I’ve started asking myself: who pays for that great deal I found? Does the store pay, the employees, or the person in the factory (often in a less-developed country)? Do I really need a whole bunch of cheap items? At the same time, I know that currently there are people who need the bargain stores, because they do not earn enough to buy anywhere else. It is complicated, but worth pondering.
-Do we need to separate having a living wage from what we do to meaningfully contribute to society? We have been raised to believe that the wage we earn must be tied to the employment we do. I’ve always been intrigued with the Star Trek series in which they abandoned this concept. People work because they want to contribute meaningfully to society. They earn no money for their work, and still have access to food, shelter, clothing and medical care, as well as entertainment. Now, that may be science fiction, but science fiction does come true. Almost every one of us has a cell phone now, which works like, and has gone far beyond, the Star Trek communicators. So what if we gave everyone a Guaranteed Annual Income? It works in places where it has been tried. Instead of Employment Insurance or welfare systems, everyone (yes, everyone!) receives a monthly cheque in the same amount, enough to sustain the basics of life. Where it has been implemented, people’s health has improved because they are no longer stressed about not having work, their education has improved because the children have food when they go to school and adults can undertake further education without worry about finances, crime has gone down in the community, homelessness has disappeared, the need for the foodbank is gone and less is paid by the government on healthcare. People are happier, healthier and more able to contribute in a number of ways to their community. But we fear that people would abuse such a system. The truth is that people abuse the system we have now – but it is only a few. Far more suffer under the system we have. And our children, they may be the ones suffering in a society that continues to believe that the wage we earn must be tied to the employment we do.
-Another twist to this is the fact that the amount paid to a person is based, not on the amount of work they really do, but on the value we place on that work as a society. You can’t tell me that a CEO of a company really works harder than their secretary or managers. A hockey player puts in no more hours than a musician – both of whom offer us great entertainment. Yet in each of these situations one gets paid significantly more than the other, because we as a society have at some point decided that one is worth more than the other. Yes, I know there are arguments for why a CEO should get more than a secretary – but really – that much more? Why? And why should the secretary be laid off, while the CEO gets a bonus that would have kept several secretaries employed? Why is it that the rich are getting richer? How much money does one really need? We must start asking these questions.
I’ve grown up with the words of Mahatma Ghandi, “Live simply so that others may simply live.” He is pointing out that we have choices. It is what Jesus often reminded people as well. Live simply so that others may simply live. Some people, in our community as well as in other countries, don’t have a choice. They are forced to live simply because they don’t have a job or access to resources. Yet, I do have a choice. I am privileged to live in a country and a province where I have access to the best of education and the best of healthcare. I am privileged by the family in which I grew up, by my white skin, by my education (which was more affordable when I accessed it), and by my current circumstances in which both I and my husband have paid employment.
Do I take my privilege and my earnings and run with them? No. As a follower of Jesus, I couldn’t do it. I would always have that niggling within that says, “Live simply so that others may simply live.” Do I always succeed? No – sometimes I get carried away and caught up in society’s ideals. Do I share what I have? Absolutely – as a family we are committed to tithing. Do decisions I make sometimes bring unintended harm to others? Unfortunately, yes! But I keep trying, and keep paying attention. I am working more on buying gifts from those who make things by hand rather than buying items made cheaply in foreign factories. I am seeking to reduce more and more of what I once considered necessary material goods in my life, and reducing my footprint on this earth. I use technology, but in the bank, I try to go to the teller rather than to the bank machine, if possible. I shop online, but I try to do more of my shopping in stores with real people serving me, so that they have employment. I try to buy more locally here in High River, rather than driving to where I might get it slightly cheaper, because I want to see stores here in my town and see people here employed. It isn’t easy, but as a follower of Jesus, I truly believe that I must keep struggling with these questions and challenging the status quo thinking.
I want my children and your children to be able to contribute to our society and our world, in meaningful ways that use their gifts and talents. One of my boys asked recently, “How am I going to make a money doing this?” That is the question. But the other questions are, “why is money to live on tied to someone trying to meaningfully contribute to society?” and “why do some people get paid so very much more for work than others who work just as hard and contribute as much or more to society?”
Live simply so that others may simply live. It is time we, as a society and as faithful people, started asking just how we can do this, so that our children will have jobs and will have the resources to live happy, healthy lives.
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