For the past thirty years, we have celebrated the huge benefits of globalization, with too little attention focused on its drawbacks. At the outset we should acknowledge that the benefits of globalization have greatly exceeded the costs both globally as well as individual countries.
While the free flow of goods, services, information, and people delivered dramatically higher standards of living for hundreds of millions of people - these processes also produced large numbers of economic losers alongside the winners. Those who suffered most from globalization are a relatively small minority of the population, and yet the political movements that claim to speak for them are now transforming politics on both sides of the Atlantic.
And yet even as we are just coming to terms with the political and social fallout of globalization, another structural challenge looms. Rapid advances in technology - including automation, advanced manufacturing, machine learning, and other forms of artificial intelligence - will fundamentally reshape the nature of work in the coming decades but which also will produce new groups of winners - and losers.
To be clear, as the world’s leading technology and manufacturing firm, we are optimists. We believe in the power of technology to boost productivity, raise living standards, and open new horizons of human possibility - all technological leaps, from Prometheus to the steam engine to the internet, have done so. We believe, in fact, that the keys to solving the problems posed by technology lie with technology itself.
But we also believe it is critical to temper that optimism with a frank recognition of the challenges that today’s rapid technological changes pose to our economies, our politics, and our societies. We must recognize these challenges, and take action early to meet them effectively.
Download the White Paper 'The Future of Work in Europe'
Hugh Gillanders
GE
[email protected]
+3222356914