While reading Colin Wood’s article, “The Uncertain Future of Work,” in the April 2014 issue of Government Technology, I could only think, yes, yes, yes and then ask, what is the solution?  Or even more so, can we implement the solution(s) in time?

The picture looks pretty bleak for so many young to middle-age people today. They are struggling to find employment and support themselves or their families, and many of them lack the education or technical skills required for the available jobs. Their children and grandchildren face an even greater challenge since the education and skill demands for future jobs will be even higher.

As Colin Wood points out in his article, conservative estimates are that within 100 years, the day will come when machines will surpass man in their capacity to do and think.  Consider the advancement in technology in the past 100 years; imagine the advancements in the next 100 years.  What will it be like for future generations?  That’s yet to be determined, because it depends on what we do right now to prepare them for it. Each generation must prepare the next for the future.  It begins with accepting the reality of what is to come, accepting the responsibility that we must act now and doing what is necessary to ensure that the next generation is more prepared than the previous. And the cycle must continue.

We need to ensure that all individuals have an important place in forging the future for all, that they embrace their responsibility in this and that they are developed to their full potential.  So, how do we do this?  We could start by having business take a greater role in the development and support of programs to help prepare this and future generations for future work. After all, it is business that first prospers from the work, and that prosperity then rolls down to the workers and then to the government. The future of people is tied to the future of work. So if the future of work is uncertain, so is the future of people. If we don’t respond to this crisis in the making, the future could look like something out of  a science fiction movie—comprised of vast numbers of inadequately educated, unskilled, unemployable, homeless individuals roaming the streets picking food out of garbage cans while an elitist minority lives in even greater luxury and opulence.

What do you think?