David Brooks is an Op-ed writer for the NY Times. I mostly just gloss over what he writes for whatever reason. But today he had a point that I’ve recently touched on indirectly – manufacturing jobs.
As Mr. Brooks says in today’s piece called The Cognitive Age globalization is convenient for politicians because blaming someone that can’t vote insults no one. But does blaming faceless entities accomplish anything? Not really – every four years it is the same song and dance.
But Mr. Brooks really highlights the issue, technology. Jobs aren’t being lost to foreign countries like politicians say. Jobs are being lost to computer systems. Why? Because the job was routine to begin with. The current person doing the job is in the unfortunate position of being in a job that needs his level of skills at this point in time. If he was more educated or had more diversity in his skill set then he probably wouldn’t be in the job in the first place. But once the job is automated the person that is displaced is expected to use their other skills to get a new job. But those skills either don’t exist or have been neglected.
For more information as to where his is headed, check out Daniel Pink. He has several great ideas for people to latch onto while doing a gig that is routine.
Working Thoughts 