In an essay entitled “Making It in America” the author Adam Davison relates a joke from cotton country about just how much a modern textile mill has been automated: The average mill has only two employees today, “a man and a dog. The man is there to feed the dog, and the dog is there to keep the man away from the machines.
Davidson’s article is one of a number of pieces that have recently appeared making the point that the reason we have such stubbornly high unemployment and declining middle-class incomes today is largely because of the big drop in demand because of the Great Recession, but it is also because of the advances in both globalization and the information technology revolution, which are more rapidly than ever replacing labor with machine or foreign workers.
In the past, workers with average skills, doing an average job, could earn an average lifestyle. But, today, average is officially over. Being average is just won’t earn you what it used to. It can’t when so many more employers have so much more access to so much more above average cheap foreign labor cheap robotics, cheap software, cheap automation and cheap genins. Therefore, everyone needs to find their extra – their unique value contribution that makes them stand out in whatever is their field of employment.
Yes, new technology has been eating jobs forever, and always will. But there’s been an acceleration. As Davidson notes, “ In the 10 years ending in 2009, factories shed workers so fast that they erased almost all the gains of the previous 70 years; roughly one out of every three manufacturing jobs – about 6 millions in total – disappeared.”
There will always be change – new jobs, new products, new services. But the one thing we know for sure is that with each advance in globalization and the I.T. revolution , the beat jobs will require workers to have more and better education to make themselves above average.
In a world where average is officially over, there are many things we need to do to buttress employment, but nothing would be more important than passing some kind of G.I. Bill for the 21st century that ensures that every American has access to post-high school education.
The joke in Paragraph 1 is used to illustrate
A. the impact of technological advances
B. the alleviation of jobs pressure
C. the shrinkages of textile mills
D. the decline of middle-class incomes
A.chunkB.chipC.trailD.path
A. chunk
B. chip
C. trail
D. path
A.dominantB.original .C.temporaryD.similar
A. dominant
B. original .
C. temporary
D. similar
The advantages of electronic money, you might think that we would move quickly to the cashes society in which all payments are made electronically. __1__,a true society is probably not around the corner. Indeed, predictions of such society have been __2___for two decades but have not yet come to fruition. For example, Business Week predicted in 1975 that electronic means of soon “revolutionize the very ___3__of money itself,” only to reverse itself several years later. Why has the movements to a cashless society been so slow coming?
Although electronic means of payment may be more efficient than a payments system based on paper, several factors work ____6___the disappearance of the paper system. First, it is very ___7___to set up the computer, card reader, and telecommunications networks necessary to make electronic money the __8__ form. of payment. Second, paper checks have the advantages that they ___9___receipts, something that many consumers are unwilling to ____10____. Third , the use of paper checks gives consumers several days of “float”-it takes several days __11____a check is cashed and funds are _12____from the issuer’s account, which means that the writer of the check can earn interest on the funds in the meantime.___13____ electronic payments are immediate, they eliminate the float for the consumer.
Fourth, electronic means of payment may __14_____ security and privacy concerns. We often hear media reports that an unauthorized hacker has been able to access a computer database and to alter information ___15___ there. The fact that this is not an _16____occurrence means that dishonest persons might be able access bank accounts in electronic payments systems and __17__ steal funds by moving them from someone else’s accounts into their own. The ___18__of this type of fraud is no easy task, and a whole new field of computer science is developing to ____19__security issues. A further electronic means of payments leaves an electronic ____20___ that contains a large number of personal data. There are concerns that government, employers, and marketers might be able to access these data, thereby violating our privacy.
A. However .
B. moreover .
C. Therefore .
D. Otherwise