In 1968 Reverend Martin Luther King Jr spoke about a Great Revolution in his last Sunday sermon, this revolution was not only addressing civil rights but was also highlighting the impact of technology in the work environment (Ford, 2018). That decade the Ad Hoc Committee of the Triple Industrial Revolution predicted class polarisation and replacement of labour. They suggested the implementation on a universal income for the citizens due to economic prosperity. Previous to that, in the XIX century, when the machinery started to replace textile workers, a secrete oath organisation raised: The Luddites. The Luddites was the first organisation to highlight the need for a universal income. These workers realised that the skills they learnt were replaced by technology and they couldn’t keep up with learning new skills. The Fourth Industrial Revolution shows examples of countries starting to implement the ideas of the Ad Hoc Committee e.g. Finland, Switzerland, Holland (Erik. Brynjolfsson, 2014). Autor explains how the automation will have such a great impact that the thought of a universal income is not rare. As a system, capitalism, functions with citizens acquiring human capital that influences the flow of wealth over a career path, but if machines will take over all the labour the system will have a challenge re-interpreting who owns this wealth (AUTOR et al., 2018).
If future city growth is based on the idea that humans move to urban areas for economic reasons, it is logical to think that this growth will be affected by the impact of economy on automation. If industries in cities no longer need humans to function this will mean that cities will not grow at the same pace (if we move into a jobless scenario). Nevertheless, McAfee and Brynjolfsson points to how universal income in the US will be unworkable: the US in 2014 had 134 million households with an average of 2.6 people, Federal poverty level for that household size was 18,000 dollars a year. That would mean a universal basic income of 2.4 trillion per year in the US. A 2018 report from the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) suggest the creation of a Universal Income in the United Kingdom. RSA highlights how in today’s society being an employee does not mean being economically safe due to the non-steady increase in wages *2 *3. RSA framework will offer a 5000£ dividend to citizens younger than 55 years old.
As previously mentioned, if automation triggers a new jobless scenario in a post-capitalistic era will cities keep on growing at the same pace? would we see new urban scenarios? What do you think?
* Since 1990’s median wage growth has decreased in the UK and nice the financial crisis on 2010 the recovery of real wages due to poor productivity is an issue in Britain. (Ford, 2018)
*3 United Kingdom is at a record of employed people but real incomes has not increase. (Ford, 2018)
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