ag ae WHAT TO DO with the , “eight out of 10 people who _ by the year 2025 — will . never again find any jobs in _ today’s sense of the word. » That's the ‘alarming question poied by Jeremy Rifkin, head of a “: Washington think-tank called the Foundation on Economic Trends, in | ».. anew bock with the scary title The “End Of Work. ‘oc The “Yhird Industrial ” Revolution”, says Rifkin, will see. > the end of mass labor for producing ‘goods and services, Even education “ and retraining won't help in the : long run, because within 30 years ‘4° Just 20% of the population will be able to supply the total needs of the 2 entire global. marketplace. vo Symbolic of the trend were the 26,000 people who recently braved Up to 36 hours in freezing overnight ~. temperatures for the remote chance “Of a job‘at the GM plant in Pickering, Ont. — a prime example - . Of how galloping technology is tak- .. ing over.the human workplace. . - More.and more assembly lines o are no longer. run by men with. . Monkey wrenches but by precision } robots guided by computers. For - ‘tomorrow’s assembly-line worker the minimal qualifications, says the ‘Canadian Manufacturers’: «© “ Association, will be one year's col. _ lege phis computer smarts — and “even those will guarantee fewer and “Y fewer jobs.’ Oy Nor is only manufacturing. affected. The same high-tech revo- » lation i is also" ousting human labor from the low-paid service induis- tries. ; Yet nobody seems to be giving any serious thought to how 80% of today’s new-born babes will obtain a livelihood if Rifkin — with much evidence already on his side’— turns out to be right.) > Not that there’ll ever be’ any shortage of work needed to improve our battered world, much of it requiring skills that only humans possess. Cleaning up and beautify- ing the environment. Service of a myriad of different kinds to fellow humans who can’t pay for it with money. Exploring the still *-- unplumbed depths of the human : mind ——- and of the limitless uni-: Verse. Yes, there’s lots and lots else RECENT report to North Vancouver City Council underlines a variety of child care issues in the municipality that need addressing. But the report also rais- ¢s the increasingly disturbing issue of respon- sibility for the care of our children. Government is again being asked to pro- ‘vide more resources for local child care when. more of that responsibility needs to be shoul- dered by parents and families. Major issues identified by the report include the affordability and accessibility of child care in North Vancouver City, which has some of the highest child care fees in B.C., but also has a higher percentage of low-income and single-parent families than do North and West Vancouver districts. According to the report, only 7% of city | children have access to full-time licensed child care. The shortage of child care is par- ALAS EPP YO ticularly critical for children under the age of three. ; ‘The report recommends a series of actions be taken by the city as part of an overall Child Care Pian to increase its role as “a part. ner in the facilitation and maintenance ofa comprehensive child care system.” The plan would add $45,000 in annual costs to the current $72,000 already allocated - by the city to child care. Being opposed to child care is akin to being opposed to motherhood, and the plan propes- es much that sounds socially beneficial on the surface. But the cold reality is that. govern- ment can’t be expected, nor should it attempt, — to take over the role of parenting. There is no question that some private citi- .. zens need some ‘help with child care, but the responsibility for child care should reside’ with parents and fariilies, not governments. The problem is that none of it is wealth-producing in MONETARY terms — that function soon to be reserved for a mere one in five workers.:So who provides the other _ four non-wealth-producers with food, heat. housing, healthcare and the other comforts of civilized liv- ing? ‘Communism clearly didn't work. So far, capitalism has done ’ better by taxing everyone in order to support the non-wealth-producers — who already comprise over 50% of ali workers. But once technology drives that figure up to 80%, tax revenue must inevitably soar. So where should this added tax burden fall? The obvious ‘and only answer is to tax, so to speak, the machines : themselves — the robots, the com- puters and software that cause the problem. Thus, the more businesses are automated and computerized to produce all our material needs with one-fifth of our work force, the more they'll have to contribute to funding the other four-fifths. If not, who'll be able to buy all their vast material output? And who'll supply ali the non-material / services mankind so badly needs? ‘Nothing — including how.to tame technology — is as simple as it first sounds. Thanks, Jeremy. Rifkin, for alerting us to this one in time! WRIGHT OR WRONG: To knock a chip off someone’s shoul- der, try a pat on the back. malhox Wright is right on Dear Editor: ‘Noel Wright is “right on!” (his . headline “PC backlash emerging” North Shore News). Thank you, again, for navidp the .: intestinal fortitude to publish such opinions. I wouldn’t change a single © word of Mr. Wright’s copy. And please let him know that many of us will be attending the services for the “long overdue death, of Political Correctness” ... all he has to. do, now, is’ signify the actual date of burial! It will be a /great day for the world when writers, and others:in the _public-serving media, can . express honest opinion without hav- - ing to consider. who will set out to prove that’ opinion was intended to” be offensive in the first place. 1 just wish that every editor, at least in Canada, if not all of North: America, could see a copy of Noel . Wright's item on his/her desk by.. i *.,tains, or ‘Doug: Collins, the North 7 Many of ‘them, I- know, would uO : . fespond in support of Wright’s con- cept of how damaging this cancer - can be to individual and collective : tomorrow morning. Q freedoms... ‘ Writers such as Noel Wright take | awful risks; as indéed you do, when « you dare to. publish the truth so. iuntly. That can only be classed as - some kind of tragedy; sad commen- - tary on what we have done to a country: which we: profess to love because of the “way | in which Canadians have ‘always : espoused the cause of freedom. Sunshine?” ; things. ‘That cause, the cause. of: free-.- dom, gains strength every time you. take that risk. That is the kind of. ‘courage the basic Canadian person-:° ality expects of its ‘leaders:..in any. field of endeavor.. - Bravo, Sir/Madam! I salitte you. o J. Russell-Taylor nO North Vancouver Light shed | on Sunshine | ‘Dear Editor: Re: “Why is, - there : any: Chantal’s composition fon, Sunshine gets a C+ — which might: have been higher, had I not. falle asleep before the end...) : “Why is there any Sunshine Girl at all?” Because ‘they’re’ there, :in 500 words or less. Just like moun- Girl. Asking “why”: is’ like ‘askin ‘why .there’s: motherhood,’ or: apple ° pie,. or: Lenten democracy It_goes 5 “beyond feminism: sex ism, racism, or any, other ‘ism’, — _and it’s called freedom’ of the’ press, : All those ‘opposed, please turn’ to. the fashion pages, or the classifieds, or the TV section —. you're block- ing the view,’ ‘anyway. G.A.R. 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