His 1995 book, "The End of Work", is credited by some with helping shape the current global debate on automation, technology displacement, corporate downsizing, and the future of jobs. Reporting on the growing controversy over automation and technology displacement in 2011, "The Economist" pointed out that Rifkin drew attention to the trend back in 1996 with the publication of his book, "The End of Work". Then "The Economist" asked "what happens... when machines are smart enough to become workers? In other words, when capital becomes labor." "The Economist" noted that "this is what Jeremy Rifkin, a social critic, was driving at in his book, "The End of Work," published in 1996... Mr. Rifkin argued prophetically that society was entering a new phase, one in which fewer and fewer workers would be needed to produce all the goods and services consumed. 'In the years ahead,' he wrote, 'more sophisticated software technologies are going to bring civilisation ever closer to a near-workerless world. The process has already begun."