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What Happens if Work Goes Away?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2015

Al Gini
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Abstract:

Jeremy Rifkin argues that as we push further into the Information Age fewer and fewer workers will be needed to produce our goods and services. Rifkin predicts that the era of near workerless factories and virtual corporations looms on the horizon. As one wag commentator put it: “The factory of the future will be staffed by only two living things, a man and a dog. The man’s job will be to feed the dog. The dog’s job will be to keep the man from touching any of the machines!” In a world that is phasing out mass employment, asks Rifkin, how do we find alternate ways for individuals to earn a living, find meaningful and creative outlets for expressions and establish their own sense of self-worth and identity? In other words, in the absence of work, how will we come to define ourselves? What will we do with ourselves? How will we stay sane?

Type
Articles
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , January 2000 , pp. 181 - 188
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Business Ethics 2000

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References

1 Robert Jackall, Moral Mazes (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998). Howard S. Schwartz, Narcissistic Process and Corporate Decay (New York: New York University Press, 1990).

2 Karl Marx, “The German Ideology,” ed. and trans. Lloyd Easton, Kurt Guddot, Writings of the Young Marx on Philosophy and Society (New York: Doubleday, 1967), p. 409.

3 Jeremy Rifkin, The End of Work (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1995), p. 236.

4 Ibid., p. xiv.

5 Ibid., p. 7.

6 Ibid., p. 235. Also, “Bulletin Board: Guru Watch,” Inc. 2 (1995): 11.

7 J. Rifkin, The End of Work, p. 110.

8 Ibid., p. xii.

9 Ibid., p. 8.

10 Jeremy Rifkin, Interview, Metropolis NCR Chicago - WBEZ-FM, July 20, 1996.

11 J. Rifkin, The End of Work, p. xii.

12 Ibid., p. 35.

13 Ibid., pp. 174, 175. Also, A. J. Vogel, “A Future Without Jobs,” Across The Board: The Conference Board Magazine, July/August 1995, p. 43.

14 J. Rifkin, The End of Work, p. 6.

15 Ibid., p. 5.

16 Edward E. Gordon, Ronald R. Morgan, Judith A. Ponticell, Future Work - The Revolution Reshaping American Business (Westport, Conn.: Praeger Books, 1994.)

17 J. Rifkin, The End of Work, pp. 3, 4.

18 Ibid., p. 25.

19 Ibid., p. 11.

20 “All Things Considered,” NPR-Chicago, WBEZ-FM, September 1, 1997.

21 Matthew Fox, The Reinvention of Work (Harper: San Francisco, 1994), p. 2.

22 J. Rifkin, The End of Work, p. xv.

23 R. C. Longworth, “The World of Work,” Chicago Tribune Perspective Section, September 4, 1994, p. 1.

24 Richard J. Barnet and John Cavanagh, Global Dreams (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994), p. 16.

25 J. Rifkin, The End of Work, p. xv.

26 Ibid., p. 12.

27 Ibid., p. 131.

28 Ibid., pp. 70ff.

29 David Remnick, “Dr. Wilson’s Neighborhood,” The New Yorker, April 29 and May 6, 1996, p. 97.

30 Laura S. Washington, “In Search of a Full-Time Job,” Chicago Tribune, Section 1, July 7, 1997, p. 13.

31 Jack E. White, “Let Them Eat Birthday Cake,” Time Magazine, September 2, 1996, p. 45.

32 William J. Wilson, When Work Disappears (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996), p. xiii.

33 Ibid., p. 52.

34 Ibid., p. 72.

35 Ibid., p. 20.

36 Ibid., pp. 75–78.

37 J. Rifkin, The End of Work, p. 236.

38 Ibid., p. 12.