Cornucopia by John Kinsella

Author:John Kinsella
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: hong kong, russia, dublin, paris, banks, colombia, city of london, offshore banking, oligarchs, geopoltics

CORNUCOPIA

John Francis, as a seasoned economist and historian, knew better than most the challenge of robotisation. Technology had threatened jobs since the end of eighteenth century and it was Adam Smith who described mass production in his opus magnum: An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, published in 1776. Francis owned an early copy of the four volume work, bought in an Istanbul second hand bookshop many years back. It was kept it in a prominent place in the library of his Dublin home, a constant reminder of economic fundamentals and change.

Labour and economics were subjects that attracted the attention many historical commentators. The oft cited quotation: History never repeats itself but it rhymes, erroneously attributed to Mark Twain, certainly contained some truths. However, Francis preferred the words from a novel Mark Twain co-wrote with his neighbour Charles Dudley Warner: History never repeats itself, but the Kaleidoscopic combinations of the pictured present often seem to be constructed out of the broken fragments of antique legends.

Although Adam Smith was the first to have described the economics in terms of manual mass production, Francis saw robotics as its ultimate tool, in fact it was at the heart of his vision of Cornucopia. This was confirmed by the evidence around him whereby almost every industry was affected by the introduction of robotics, from white collar jobs in banking and insurance to steel and automobile production lines.

Advances in the computerisation of production tools progressed in leaps and bounds. Almost every labour oriented task was being optimised by intelligent machines in a tectonic shift that was transforming human society. Cornucopia was on the march and unless politicians and business leaders acted, its effects on those left by the wayside would be devastating.

Some described the changes as cyclic, including Francis, who believed history taught mankind its lessons, even if they were constructed out of the broken fragments of the past. However, the difference with the past was the ever accelerating speed of change, which had reached a point where leaders and institutions were no longer capable of providing an adequate response.

Quantum changes in technology had destroyed jobs: first hollowing out the working classes, then the middle classes, and in almost every sector of commerce and industry.

Moreover, as jobs were increasingly automated, the effect on real wages was inversely proportional.

Soon, Francis told his students, the economy in parts of the UK would resemble that of undeveloped countries. In fact it was already the case, with certain towns and districts of large cities already reminiscent of urban scenes in the Middle East or India, regions where small businesses dominated the economic scheme of things: food and small services, clothing and textiles, kitchen equipment, repairs and spare parts, buses, taxi services and the local transport of goods, pharmacies and medical services, local markets for agricultural products, and small farming tools.

In brief primary manufacturing was absent. With the exception of services, bakers, butchers, restaurants and the like, practically all industrially manufactured goods were imported: the

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