The Future of Work: Not in Europe

We need to have a global conversation about the future of work. And we can’t have it soon enough. It should be preceded only by the global conversation we haven’t yet had about climate change.

Here’s a microcosm of why we need to discuss the future of work. For the past couple of weeks, French farmers have been protesting falling beef and dairy prices by setting fire to piles of hay and manure on main roads to tourist attractions. The farmers say it is more expensive to raise beef than the price they get for it. Something, they say, must be done. And that’s what this particular protest was about.

We passed it, wondering at first what it was, on our vacation in Brittany. I didn’t realize then how it fits into a bigger picture. Farmers are getting disrupted — or at least those who raise cows and pigs are getting disrupted..

Although we weren’t personally held up getting to or from France apparently things have gotten even worse in the past few days, with migrants to Europe now joining the protesters in blocking ferry routes and, over the past weekend, the Eurotunnel itself. Oh, and the ferry workers have decided to strike, too. Since July and August are prime vacation months for British families going to France and French families simply shutting up shop, the impact on the European economy will be material.

Disruption seems to be hitting Europe with even greater force than it has hit the U.S., and we can’t blame it all on technology. Falling beef prices, for example, are a result of the French (and everyone else) eating less beef. Marching my 10,000-steps-a-day vegan body around towns that have been farming since the Middle Ages, I found more vegan options than ever, while in London people have opened entire chains of vegetarian restaurants.

It’s useless for the French (or anyone else for that matter) to ask the government to subsidize the price of meat and milk as lifestyles change and people begin eating more plant-based diets, even as it’s useless for the French taxi industry to fight Uber when the people want it.

Things change.

For the past fifty years, Europe has been living a cushy life of month-long summer holidays and short work weeks while accustoming itself to free health care, child care and pensions. The US figured out during the Clinton era that we couldn’t afford all those services without something in return (hence the welfare-to-work program) and we’ve been gradually losing our social supports.

Now the pace of change is accelerating, and the EU is getting caught in the crossfire. Between job-hungry immigrants willing to work hard for low wages and the march of robotics and artificial intelligence, even the wealthier countries like the UK, France, and Germany are affected. As for the southern countries — well, you know all about the Grexit by now.

It’s over, Europe. Socialism, much as we all want it, is unsustainable. People must work.

It all boils down to a big question: “how will be continue to support ourselves on this planet?” And I suspect the answer will be “not the way we have in the past.”