Thursday, May 17, 2012

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

The sign of the times

Kenichi Ohmae foretold the arrival of the M shaped society in which the middle class which formed the bulwark of the industrialised society has seen their standard of living deteriorating.Chomsky said that society is regressing when upward social mobility is restricted as business elites work hand in hand with the political elites to tighten their grip on the concentration of wealth.
     The gap in incomes would widen further as power is concentrated in this politico-economic nexus.The change from aristocracy to democracy,from pre industrialisation to industrialization has seen the creation of a large pool of middle class earners that contributed to the growing consumer class for the products manufactured by the captains of industries.With rising use of robots and technology,will human capital be made obsolete?If they are made obsolete,who would be the consumers of the manufactured products?
      Should society encourage self sustaining communities that would reduce the ecological footprint and utilize the artisan and individual skills of weavers,carpenters,tailors,bakers instead of anonymously made products which lack the pride of labour and craftsmanship?