Hello Friends,
I would like to start a discussion about how can Australian service workers survive in the current climate. Currently we are facing tremendous pressures due to many factors such as:
1) High value of Australian Dollar - which makes outsourcing any labour practically impossible due to it not being feasible for foreigners to employ Australians for digital work. Actually many Aussie work is being outsourced to places with cheaper currencies that are good with English. Of course there are cultural barriers but with some research and trials you can easily find a digital worker abroad that is able to deliver good enough results.
2) Advancements in AI and ML - This is touching all industries and would result in a lot of people being put out of work in the near future. I know many argue that new jobs will come up but it is not going to be even close to equal or more. Just like industrial revolution replaced physical labour with machines, AI and ML have capability to replace mental labour and surpass human capability to do fairly complex mental tasks. If you have not watched the documentary on how machine was able to beat human in the game "Go" then you should.
3) Ageing - As humans get older, their ability to learn a new language decreases, thus we find that older people are less adaptive than a younger people. We need more time to recover physically and mentally than younger folks and there is discrimination in the labour market that prefers more performant individuals. Hence the changes of more people falling through the cracks become higher.
4) Pressures on wage - If you are working a low or medium wage job, chances are that you are barely making enough to pay bills. Thus it is quite difficult to keep a buffer even after budgeting astutely. The cost of accommodation, utilities, transport, groceries themselves take most portion of the wage and the balance of saving is not enough for an individual to survive the times they would be likely be facing disruption in the job market. Once you fall, the recover is even harder because it affects you mentally, you won't have good enough clothes, your health gives away that you are poor and thus it is even more unlikely for you to land a good job.
5) Supporting human demands - Many people want children, want to take care of their family, want to travel, want to celebrate something or the other, but a lot of this costs money. Yes you can go low budget on many of these things or even forego it completely. In fact most would suggest that you invest that money into the market and watch it compound. It all depends on individuals' wants however we all have them and we are not machines. Even at some workplaces, if I got injured or sick its bad news (I was actually fired once for falling ill when I was a youngster) I generally don't like taking sick days. Low incomes can also mean families break apart, lower chances of finding love and higher chances of being lonely and depressed and along with all that breakdown of mental/physical support systems.
In such a scenario, how are we to survive ? If we don't have our labour power to sell, we cannot survive. Any good solutions?
UBI/UBS.
But will be fought bitterly by the rich.