Eoin Treacy's view

What the future of automation will be and how quickly it all happens is a guess but the trend is clear. From my perspective, the good news is that analysts, financial managers et al are at the left-hand side of the automation spectrum but the more troubling point is that there are a good many jobs that employ large numbers of people which are at risk from automation. That means we are going to need to come up with a lot more different kinds of work for people, especially those with little education, to do. 

The answer from Silicon Valley is to just give them all some money every month as they champion Universal Basic Income, with scarcely a thought for where all that money is going to come from. The only rational answer to improving the competitiveness of the workforce relative to machines is to commit to livelong education that is both cheap and effective. If that needs to be subsidized by government, then surely, it’s a better outcome than giving people just enough money so they can survive and play Xbox all day.