What to do without job?

[Nik]

Most systems that provide some social support to unemployed are calibrated towards encouraging people to find work or otherwise became self-sustainable, and sometimes provide for some re-qualification.
However, jobs migrate to cheaper places and are replaced by automation. The globalization, concentration and merger within industries result in disbanding of parallel departments in entities coming under a common roof. High tech is arguably expanding, but in most industries we have less and less independent manufacturers.
Trump declares bringing jobs back to the States and he might succeed in doing so, however the outflow happens too.
Can it be so that we'd be facing a jobless world in the future and, if yes, how to survive in such a case, allowing for overcrowding of indie authors market and limited abilities of people to become inventors, entrepreneurs and youtubers?

[Ian]

I do not think becoming an indie author is the answer to the jobless market - not with my sales, anyway. My answer to total automation was in my novel "Scaevola's Triumph" - there are always service industries and the army, BUT for the majority there is a neat alternative - democracy :-)

[Jen from Quebec :0)]

I am currently jobless for health reasons....so, I am dedicating this time without work to reading and writing as much as I can! --Jen from Quebec :0)

[[deleted user]]

Hello Jen!

I am also from Quebec (Boucherville, south of Montreal) and just decided to retire due to age (near 62) and poor health. Thanks to my old military pension and Quebec old age pension, I will be able to manage reasonably well in retirement. One thing I noticed is how much my stress levels have gone down abruptly after deciding to retire. My past job as a night security guard must have been even lousier than I felt! I am an indie author but, since I publish online and offer my ebooks for free, that was not a factor in retiring.

On the subject of automation taking away our jobs, the answer to that is simple: let's not let enterprises go to full automation, either via boycots, political pressures and government legislations. Once public discontent is sufficiently aroused, politicians will take notice and, hopefully, pound some communal sense into CEOs, possibly by taxing heavily any company creating mass unemployment via automation.

[J.N.]

In all likelihood, the gov'ment will put everybody to work digging holes. The good news is that same gov'ment will provide you with a state-approved teaspoon with which you are to do all your hard labor.

The benefits are legion:
1. The hard labor is exercise, so you will be fit and thus not become obese.
2. The hard labor is outside, so you will get plenty of vitamin D from the sun.
3. The hard labor exposes you to other people, so you will learn how to interact with your peers.
4. Each laborer will have a slave-master gov'ment boss, so you will learn to respect those with authority over you.
5. Failure to comply means death, so you will learn plenty of life-lessons on the job.
6. Because the gov'ment is the employer, it amounts to universal employment! Everybody can dig holes, yay!
7. Digging holes builds character. (Duh!)
8. The only way to avoid digging holes is to become a politician and become elected into office. But hole-diggers won't vote for people who have never dug any holes. Ergo, all politicians will have to dig holes, too, before they can get elected.
9. Graves require holes. From the gov'ment's perspective, digging holes is thus a win-win proposition.
10. If zombies attack, all workers will be fit and armed with teaspoons. Thus the apocalypse will likely fail before it gets started. :)

And the number one benefit:
11. No taxes! Whatever you earn, the gov'ment keeps. This way, the gov'ment can feed you gov'ment-approved gruel on gov'ment procured/recycled paper plates, and offer you "healthcare" (ie, the hole you will eventually be buried in). And since you will dig holes forever and whenever you are awake, and fed drugs to prevent you from sleeping, you won't need any housing or entertainment.

[Ian]

And when that is complete, you will have another team tasked with filling in holes :-)

[Nik]

J.N. wrote: "In all likelihood, the gov'ment will put everybody to work digging holes. The good news is that same gov'ment will provide you with a state-approved teaspoon with which you are to do all your hard ..."

Nice hole-digging apocalyptic short -:)

[Nik]

Michel wrote: "Hello Jen!

I am also from Quebec (Boucherville, south of Montreal) and just decided to retire due to age (near 62) and poor health. Thanks to my old military pension and Quebec old age pension, I ..."

Congrats on stress -free retirement, Michel!

[Nik]

The virus and the subsequent unemployment surge render this thread as relevant as ever. In most countries there are reliefs coming, but they are likely to address the problem only partially. If the economies shrink, the job may too. Do you expect millions of fresh unemployed to get back to work quickly or should we expect substantial hardships with re-employment?

[Ian]

I believe there will be significant unemployment because already people being locked down have to deploy their savings to basic living, like food and rent. All those involved in providing more luxury, etc, will find insufficient consumers, so they will have to get rid of some staff. That will work its way down from "luxuries" to "not absolutely essential", and also, things like cinemas may have a fear factor of viruses introduced. With reduced consumption, through lack of cash, fewer people are needed to provide and service the consumables

If they find a vaccine, the fear factor may diminish, but hiring people tends to be approached cautiously, so it may take quite some time to recover.

[J.J.]

As authors, this is the time to ramp up our push on our books because people are looking online for activities more than ever. I put my graphic novels back in KU, and April was the second biggest month for reads I had with that pen name. I also suspended the April payment on my Patreon account and didn't seem to have a net loss of patrons when the May billing cycle kicked in this weekend.

I also took the opportunity to collect some of my old stories under this name into a box set set and release it cheap, and it's seen a few sales as well as a few older titles I knocked down to 99 cents to help out people's wallets.

Because a good chunk of income has shifted to Patreon, I was afraid the lockdowns and unemployment was going to eat into that piece of the pie, but it seems my patrons want the entertainment enough to stick with me.