I have been working in some capacity since I was around twelve years of age. For the first few years, it was cash in hand jobs, because legally it wasn't possible to work at that age. The first was sweeping out and clearing trash from newly built houses and apartments before the painters came in, and the money was pretty good. Then once I could work legally, it was a string of fast-food and supermarket jobs, that gave me enough money to buy some clothes and drink with friends on the weekend. As I got a little older, I went into retail, before coming to Finland.
What is interesting now is that there are less and less roles for young people to work, as AI and automation takes a lot of the positions people use to cut their teeth on. And while it might not seem a great loss to lose a serving position at McDonald's, the experience of working consistently and interacting with management, are extremely valuable to learn when there is not much at stake.
But now, even in career industries where knowledge workers develop, the entry level roles are being lost to automation, meaning that young people never get the foundation to build a career from. And again, while this might not seem much of a loss, what it also means is that a lot of people cannot do any work until they are out of university, and even then it is touch and go.
If we think that people will live until they are 80, and retire at around 65, it also means that they have to collect all their pension needs before that. However, previously people were working from when they were 16 a little bit, and then a lot more from when they were twenty onward. So they had 45 years to build a nest egg, at an increasing rate. But with the disappearance of entry level jobs, it means that people aren't going to be starting work until they are closer to thirty, a decade less time for any earnings to compound in retirement funds.
Not only is this a massive hit, but what it also means is that the "new entry level" positions are actually quite specialised, but the people who are expected to do them, have no work experience. The best workers are not the ones that have the most theoretical knowledge gathered from text books, they are the ones who have knowledge, applicable experience and good work ethic to apply what they know and can do to get results. A lot of people entering into the job market now have a lot of expectations on their employers, but very poor work ethic.
But how are you meant to build a work ethic at thirty years of age, after not having worked for the last thirty years? Even in the home, household chores that kids used to do are being replaced by robotic vacuum cleaner, washing machines, dishwashers and all the other stuff so that the kids have far less household duties, or responsibilities. Where are people learning about how to cope with responsibility? Where are they learning how to do the things they don't want to do, like the vacuuming?
We are creating a society of
incompetenceincompetents.
Just tonight friends were here and the wife were talking about an 18 year old being too young to live by themselves, and the husband said that he had moved out by 18. And so had she. Yet, the 18 year olds of today are just too immature, too incompetent, too unable to fend for themselves, and provide for themselves.
Is it their fault?
Partly. But mostly it is because we have created an environment where children at all ages are no longer learning the fundamental skills they need for adult life. Which means that as they mature by age, they do not mature into adults by behaviour. They act younger for longer, with the "only young once" paradigm lasting well into the thirties, and soon those thirty year olds will be in their forties and fifties, still behaving like children.
When will they grow up?
And this is the issue with building an ecosystem of tools that do everything for us, because it means we don't have to learn for ourselves. We don't have to go through the process of learning, the overcoming of boredom and dislike, the forcing through disgusting tasks, like cleaning out the fat trays at the burger station. But as I see it, being able to avoid the basic difficulties isn't a good thing, because it is through this experience that we build the foundation to be able to tackle the far more important difficult and problems that we need to really deal with in society, and our lives as individuals.
But if there is no place to learn, because it is cheaper to automate, where does someone learn? And when people aren't learning, what happens to creativity and innovation and who has the skills, the will, and the work ethic to solve the problems that are yet to be solved, that automation can't handle yet?
And never work a day in your life...
Careful what you wish for.
Taraz
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Young people are getting less and less job opportunities and at the same time, the current recruitment system mostly requires experience, especially to get a good job. But those young people do not get the opportunity. So how will they gain experience? We cannot directly apply the theoretical subjects that we learn from textbooks in the workplace. Moreover, these subjects differ from country to country because the opportunity to apply the subjects is not available equally in all countries. That is why a large part of us here after graduating from university becomes unemployed.
A "good job" normally requires experience. Time in the trenches, learning how it all works. Not just the job, but work itself. But there seems to be a decreasing amount of opportunity, and a decreasing amount of people willing to do the crappy work.
Our job opportunities are decreasing day by day because every year lakhs of students are completing their graduation in our country but on the contrary there are less vacancies. But on the other hand the number of people doing bad things is increasing day by day. This is seen even among the employed people. Bribery is becoming virtually legal in every sector.
Honestly, there’s a huge difference between losing a low-paying job and losing a potential training ground. A lot of people underestimate how much character is built sweeping floors or showing up on time and dealing with managers. When automation erases those stepping stones, it doesn’t just change career paths, it reshapes society. We’re creating adults with academic knowledge but no real life practical resilience, and that gap is already starting to show.
I have always maintained that the government needs to take charge of the AI sphere, by making laws and policies that regulate AI activity. Like making companies depend on AI for very limited roles, and that most roles go to real people.
Throwing people off jobs and replacing with automation robots will only compound society's woes. More unemployed people, lower standard of living, more crime. I think these consequences will build to the point it blows back on the government, and the society collapses. For me AI presents the same level or more of threat to human existence as nuclear weapons.
Job opportunities in the country are decreasing everyday because machines now efficiently replace us in the society and when this happens it leaves a lot of young adults unemployed. When these young adults are unemployed and don't know what to engage in majority of them begin to engage in different crimes to make ends meet, thereby spoiling the society.
You’ve nailed the truth, work ethic isn’t something you switch on at 30. It’s built through years of small responsibilities.
And now kids expect a computer to think for them instead of learning to even write an essay.
The brain drain that might come in future generations is gonna be massive
I was working odd jobs in my teens. I worked minimum-wage customer service jobs during the summers while I went to college. Tuition rates have outpaced wage rates, so I don't know whether that's possible anymore.
I got a degree in drafting and design just in time for my career to get cut short in 2009 when the housing crash caused that entire industry to stagnate. Ever since then, national policy seems to have been based on encouraging debt and new economic bubbles instead of sustainable growth based on savings. Mainstream economics fears savings as "stagnation,' but the consequence has been a reinflated housing bubble putting home ownership out of reach, and unsustainable economic prospects for people trying to start a career.
Now, A.I. hype is indeed making a mess of many jobs, not by necessarily being "better,* but because it's a hype machine. It's the dot-com bubble in high definition.
I think we are seeing more and more that they don't actually ever grow up at all!
While technology may not be the entire problem, it is still part of the problem. But I don't really think it's about the type of technology or how fast we as a society society are adapting to new technologies. I think it's about how good we're using the tools available to us to our advantage.
Of course with new information or new discoveries comes new challenges, but those who position themselves at the forefront of the core developments gets to benefit as well. Not as easy as it sounds.
Government regulations and societal acceptance can go a long way to helping how this things affect us as a people.
There are still ways can can learn if we plug ourselves positively into the core of changes occurring around us.
Hello, friend @tarazkp. I read your post yesterday, but I couldn't comment on it due to time constraints. And today I read another one. I'll try to give a brief opinion on both.
Undoubtedly, the course that social media has taken raises serious issues, especially for families and education. I agree with you on that concern, but not on the solution you propose, which seems a little extreme to me. I think it's obvious that all this development is driven by corporate interests, but I also think that there has been no effective policy on the part of governments to control cell phone use among children and adolescents and to regulate social media.
As for your second post, I read it and feel so distant from that reality. I live in Venezuela, a country that has been under the control of an authoritarian and totalitarian regime for more than 20 years. We are “light years” away. However, I think your concern is very valid. Here it is radically different, because our children and young people not only do not have access to a decent (free and democratic) education, but worse, they are defenseless against all this technology that overwhelms them and denies them the possibility of thinking independently.
There is much more to say, but I will only write this now. Best regards and thank you for your timely reflections.
I can tell you that my son who is 24 today is not ready to live on his own. He is living with my parents in the house I paid off. He has over three years of professional work experience, but doesn't know how to operate a washing and drying machines... Or how to take care of bills or make his own food...
The reduction of entry-level positions because of automation is a major issue. I think it is not only about job loss, but also about taking away vital life skills and experiences that young people get from working.
I remember myself at 17, when I entered university and lived in a dorm 300 km from my parents. I had a lot of freedom and was ill-equipped for everyday life, but what a wonderful time it was! :)
But by the age of 22, I had already started a small business selling electronics (I remember in 1999, I built five computers from used parts to order). In 2000, I started selling cell phones and I moved alone to a strange city, to the capital, rented an apartment and became truly independent.
Honestly, I'm a bit worried about AI. It's slowly displacing jobs. It has potential risks such as privacy issues, and lack of transparency. It erodes human creativity and ability to form meaningful relationships. I'm afraid sooner or later, AI could lessen essential human skills and social interactions.
I really felt this. So many of the most important things I learned in life didn’t come from school,they came from those awkward, boring, sometimes gross first jobs. You learned to show up on time, deal with difficult people, and push through tasks you didn’t enjoy. When those early experiences disappear, it’s not just the money young people lose, it’s the mindset. You can’t teach grit from a textbook.
A few days ago I heard someone stating the only thing AI will not be able to replace is creativity. Besides that, I hear more and more that the electricians and plumbers will be the new best paying jobs when AI disrupts everything.
Most teenagers dream on a good flexible part-time job sitting behind the computer, but those are exactly the first jobs being replaced. As I keep working on stuff in the farm, I realized It is true, these kind of jobs need a lot of creativity deciding important things such us, how to deal with the connections, to make them durable, and hidden from the eye, which materials use, and which tools to do the job. I read interviews to freelance plumbers saying they keep raising their hourly rates and people keeps paying them.
Being an apprentice in this kind of jobs may be a solution for many young kids out there, besides learning the job skills, you need to directly deal with the customers which adds an extra amount of skills quite important in today's world