Can We Predict the Jobs of the Future?
I recently found myself revisiting Maslow’s famous ‘hierarchy of needs’. This is the idea that there is natural progression to human motivation, with physiological needs at the bottom and self-improvement at the top. This theory is often represented using a pyramid (as below).
The idea is that human beings will naturally prioritise fulfilling those desires at the bottom of the hierarchy before moving up. This makes an intuitive kind of sense. If you’re about to starve you’re obviously not going to be focusing on learning to play the piano or anything else of that nature.
It struck me that Maslow’s Hierarchy might have something to say about economics. Markets (at least free markets) endeavour purely to provide what people want. In a world where few people are having even their most basic needs met, what people will want is food, shelter and security, which should be reflected in the jobs market. Sure enough, if we look at pre-industrial economies, the vast majority of people were employed in agriculture, tradecraft, of the military.
As technology improves and productivity increases it becomes easier to fulfil our basic needs, allowing more people to move up the hierarchy towards ‘love’ and ‘esteem’. This has manifested itself in western society though consumerism, which has bought with it a host of leisure and retail based roles.
But what happens when technology meets those needs too? Admittedly it is difficult to see how this might take place for ‘esteem’, but internet communities and app-based dating services are already helping to meet people’s demand for love and belonging. The purpose of this article is to ask, what will happen when our main concern becomes ‘self-actualisation’?
Well, following the logic of the last few paragraphs, this change should be reflected in the jobs market. We will see more people employed in roles such as music teacher, councillor, perhaps even ‘spiritual instructor’. We may be witnessing an early example of this is the School of Life. For those of you who don’t know, the School of Life is a business which specialises in helping people meet their intellectual, psychological, and philosophical needs. They have a great YouTube channel if you’re interested.
“What will happen when our main concern becomes ‘self-actualisation’?”
It may be that the School of Life is a taste of things to come. Perhaps, in the not too distant future, there will be hundreds of different schools, each with their own unique strategy for identifying our particular creative ambitions and helping us fulfil them. It would certainly give a boost to all those underemployed philosophy graduates.
Of course this doesn’t mean that jobs satisfying our more basic desires will disappear. We will always need food, we will always crave esteem, and we will always employ people who can help us get those things. However, it may be that the future brings with it an entirely new sector for our economy, one based around helping people achieve their full creative and emotional potential.
The Individualist
21st July 2016
