Wednesday 7 February 2001

Pic of the day: Classic loser (screenshot from Daggerfall). But reality is not quite like that ...

Justice for the losers

I have on a couple occasions mentioned the Norwegian organization "Foreningen rettferd for taperne" (Justice for the losers, Associated), lastly I think when they lost in court. Today, however, I'm pondering the fact that we need a society that produces losers, and what will we do about them? Will we accept that a certain part of the populace are doomed to be losers, or will we put the responsibility on the losers themselves?

***

One big difference between American and European society is our view of employment. In the USA, the labor market works basically like any other market. If your labor isn't worth much, you won't get much for it, but you can still try to sell it. In Europe, minimum wages are common and they are high. Employing people for a low wage is considered morally dubious, kind of "slavery lite". Rather than slave for an employer, the potential workers are given a reasonable handout from the state coffers. Not enough to maintain a high standard of living, but enough to have food, clothes, a small home and beer to help them forget that they are kicked out of society.

If you walk into a McDonalds outlet in Norway, you'll notice a striking difference from the original: The workers are competent. They will understand and memorize your order, even if you list the parts in an unusual order. They look and act more like waiters than robots. And they don't say "Fries with that?" if you say "just the burger". (Well, there may be exceptions, but I've met with white, brown, black and yellow McDonalds employees, and they have always been quite competent.)

The people who would normally work in a fast food outlet, do not work at all. They are declared infirm, given a pension for life, and forgotten. The number of infirm is slowly but steadily rising, while unemployment is very low. Indeed, teenagers flock to the labor market, and recruitment abroad proceeds apace to fill all the vacancies. But some people watch from the side line.

***

It has always been such, that you could be in trouble if you were dumb and not physically strong. These days, it is enough to be dumb. When a farmer wants to dig a ditch, he doesn't talk to the big strong moron. He talks to the entrepreneur with the machines. The machines do the work faster, better and cheaper. For the farmer, the choice is obvious. But for society, or at least a European society, it is less so. The big guy still gets money, he just doesn't work anymore.

We can live with this the way it is now. We do, so obviously we can. But this is a slippery slope. Every year, computers double their performance while the price stays put. So far, robots have stayed in the factory halls, gradually replacing factory workers. Sooner or later, they will start to spread. And we will not recognize them. I've had my checkbook lying in a cupboard for more than a decade now - here in Norway we use "minibank", a form of ATM, and smartcard readers at the shops. The bank is not a place you go anymore. I pay my bills over the Net. I can change my tax card and send my tax return over the Net. We don't think of this as robots taking the work from office assistants. But in effect, that is what happens. Invisible robots.

How long before you come to your quite normal burger shop and queue up in front of ... not a stressed human, but an electronic menu where you press the burgers and fries you want, and finally insert your smart card when you are finished. (Or perhaps your right hand ... we'll just have to wait and see, hmm?)

As the roads are connected to the Internet, there will no longer be need for the latter-day cowboys that drive lorries and listen to really bad country music all day. The computer in the car will drive safer, more economically, overall faster, and needs no rest breaks. The Net in the road tells it exactly where it is, and the radar and infrared sensors warns it of traffic ahead and moose or children preparing to run out into the road.

There will be no careers left for the less than genius, except politics and religion.

It's easy to ignore the pleas for "justice" from the losers, when they are few and far between. And besides, they are broke. They can't even afford a good lawyer. But what when a quarter of the population are "losers", unemployable in a free labor market? This is what a Swedish study estimated for the very next generation. What when it's half? What when 80% of the population are unemployable, unable to comprehend the world they live in, passively accepting the pensions sent them by a computer? Where will we stop?

The price of stopping is to become the next third world country. We have to keep up with the competition. We have to use only the best. We have to park the less than perfect on the side track. At least we give them enough money for beer, so they can forget that we wish them dead and gone from our budgets.

There is always a price. But who will pay it?