Extra Humans ! :

Being in the automation industry, a question that often crops up is "What will these guys do once the software product is in place ? " This 'redeployment', workforce reduction , layoff or pink slips have become such a common usage vocabulary that it's not longer the scary thing it once was.
It makes you wonder if we have become "de-humanized" or is this really something inevitable ?

To me, it brings another question : Are we really too many of us to be employed ??
No, I am not talking about the overpopulation story, and I'm not talking about the labor ministry or HRD ministry discussions on the lack of "employable" skills in our country/world.

I'm really taking about the fact that the machines can actually do so many things that , sooner than later (if not already !) , we just dont NEED too many of us in this world..

..and the sophistication of machines is increasing, making humans more and more redundant.

Choices :
a. We let it continue and humans keep trying to retrain themselves to remain employable.
b. We take a look at the skills that computers/machines can't have , at least in the near future, and try to create more of those jobs.
c. We let the 'financial' pain hurt people into reproducing less !! and wait for 'time' to solve this problem.

There is another less appealing point .i.e
d. We automate in a controlled manner.
This point, like the others, may be brought into force through the influence of suitable government policies being devised and deployed, but is a far less appealing one because capitalism amounts to profit maximization, and the most costly resource seems to be the human being ( even though it's available in the plenty !).

There's actually another way that is a combination of many of these..
e. Let unemployment be a reasonable state of affair for a fellow human and the government bears the load of  feeding, clothing and educating the unemployed and deploy them as needed.

This is not a new thought, but a thought that is dismissed as just that...a thought !

Enforcing this policy will force the government to start inventory-ing the skill sets available in the country, and setting forward projections of employable skills and create pressure points to encourage industry that deploys the maximum number of people.

If you look at it carefully, it simply means that handling unemployment needs to be set as a major, unavoidable goal statement and pushed through the government's throat to make it devise a plan around it.
This is in contrast to it being just another politician's slogan that remains nothing more than a slogan !