Automation is coming fast. Are our political and economic institutions prepared for the upheaval it will bring? For Living the Dream Podcast guest Martin Ford, the answer is a resounding “no.” Martin’s 2009 book, The Lights in the Tunnel, is a clarion call to prepare for an automated future in which tradition free-market capitalism simply may not work.
In this podcast, Martin and I ponder what type of jobs will be lost in the coming years, whether any locale or industry is safe, and what we can do to plan ahead.
Unfortunately, the answer we agree on, expanding the social safety net, is completely out of vogue with the narrow-minded policy makers who fester in the Beltway.
Take a listen as we discuss one of the most important and intellectually provocative topics of our time.
Living the Dream 
Fascinating stuff. Really gets at the tension between two lines of argument you often hear from people who wax optimistic about globalization and technology — that our current acceleration in technological advance is unprecedented (both qualitatively and quantitatively), and that, historically, streamlining of productivity has led to more information/service jobs. If, as is clearly the case, we are entering uncharted technological territory, you can’t rely on old economic models to predict what comes next.