The All-Collar Crisis: When White Collar Work Meets Blue-Collar Reality
Hold onto your collars. The AI-generated crisis of work is here, and the storm will concentrate on white-collar workers from the professional economy. According to Julia Hobsbawm, founder of Workathon.io, these workers are about to experience the dismal reality of blue-collar redundancy. 50% of the US workforce will be freelance by 2030, some experts warn, making this transition the biggest shift in the nature of work since the Industrial Revolution. Humans can't be completely replaced by machines, Hobsbawm says. But enough will be replaced to create mass suffering — the same conditions that generated the revolutionary movements of the 19th century.
Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe
Episode 2315: Andrew McAfee finds reasons to be cheerful about the next 20 years of our tech century
Episode 2314: Richard Socher on why AI might be good for humanity
Episode 2313: Esther Dyson on being the Aunt and Court jEsther of the Tech Industry
Episode 2312: Robert D. Kaplan on the decadence of Trump's America
Episode 2311: Martin Puchner looks forward to 2045 when the whole world will have access to high quality education
Episode 2310: Why Progressives must become "Yes People" on Technology
Episode 2309: Michal Kosinski on the corrosive impact of social media on democracy and freedom
Episode 2308: Kenneth Cukier mourns the biliousness of our Big Data age
Episode 2307: Ece Temelkuran on why she still retains faith in the future
Episode 2306: Albert Wenger on how to save the Internet, Capitalism and the Planet
Episode 2305: Kurt Gray explains why we fight about morality and politics
Episode 2304: Lisa Genova on the connection between bipolar disorder and standup comedy
Episode 2303: Isaac Stanley-Becker on a Europe without Borders