I still remember as a young boy many years ago coming upon a cartoon in MAD magazine that featured a futuristic world in which two office workers complain about having to work 10 hours a week (at full-time pay).

I thought at the time that such a future would be really neat in that the prospect of working all-day, five days out of seven for 40-50 years when I grew up, wasn’t attractive in the least.  I wanted to play, not work (still do).  Unfortunately for me, it wasn’t until I retired that I could rest from my labors and still afford life’s necessities and a few of its creature comforts.

As for the rest of America, the work week has gotten longer, not shorter.  Americans work more hours than our western industrial nation counterparts.

Should that be America’s goal for the future, or should it be to reduce the need to work? Imagine a world in which people’s necessities and even a few luxuries are provided to them without the toil, all the while allowing them to pursue more fun, rewarding and interesting pursuits, including spiritual, recreational, altruistic, relaxing and enriching endeavors.

Pure science fantasy?  Maybe not so far-fetched as one mired in today’s work-a-day world might think. For years, America has been laying the groundwork through technological advancements in the fields of automation, robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), 3D printing, cloning, neuroscience, nanotechnology, information systems and more.  And we have reached a point where such advancements are coming online at an ever-increasing speed.  What’s thought to be fanciful today is becoming reality tomorrow.  And they all have one thing in common:  the promise of robots performing tasks that at one time only humans could accomplish.

Imagine a future world in which machines do all or almost all of the work at little or no cost to us, from agriculture and mining, to building a wide range of products, to delivery and service, to breakfast in bed.  Under the guidance and oversight of AI, robots would build and repair other robots.  When raw materials run low, AI will develop substitutes, or expand raw material extraction to the sea floor, moon or nearby asteroid belts.  Meanwhile, medical science will enhance our physical and cognitive capabilities, transforming us into super beings.  To heck with the American Dream; paradise beckons.

So, how do we get from here to there?  The federal government should reimburse workers whose jobs are supplanted by automation at the same rate they were earning at the time of their dismissal.  If they then accept another job, the federal assistance would end.  As more and more jobs become automated, more and more Americans will experience, for them, a world without work.  

But … who pays for people not to work?  In a word:  robots.  Rather than pay an employee say, $1,000 per week, the employer would pay just the income and payroll taxes accrued by that employee — now a robot — say $350.  No paid sick leave, vacation, holidays or maternity leave costs would be incurred by the employer.  Neither would worker’s compensation or unemployment insurance expense.  With sharply lower labor-associated costs, the employer’s taxable income increases dramatically, thus fattening state and federal governments’ coffers and their ability to underwrite the income replacement payments.  The cost of labor-associated benefits would decrease for government, too, as robots eventually replace millions of civilian and military personnel.

In one form or another, we’ve all thought about what the distant future has in store for humankind.  As new technological discoveries and developments occur at an ever faster rate, the future will be upon us sooner than expected.  And a world without work won’t seem as “mad” as when we first imagined.

C. Sheldon Smith of Des Moines, Iowa is a freelance writer and author.



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