Generalism

When I write a letter to my lovely Aunt Ethel, and I know how she loves receiving my rambling repartee, the largest cost is most certainly tied up in the time it takes me to put pen to paper. I would not want her to think that I’d rushed my correspondence, love her as I do. I take my time, and place the carefully written words into a small envelope, the front festooned with a curlicued address and a perfectly aligned first class stamp. Thirty-nine pence is never too much to bring a ray of sunshine to my Aunt’s world.

Every so often I will treat my Aunt; I know she is particularly partial to the odd jaffa cake or two with her afternoon tea, so along with my words, I will sometimes post a generously-sized carton of the cakes. I can only imagine the smile that such a package brings. It may cost a little more, being bigger and heavier, but she is of course worth every penny spent.

And on my dear Auntie’s birthday, I make sure that no expense is spared. It may be forty rolls of wool for her knitting, a complete buff and wax kit for her treasured Hillman, whatever it is I would gladly pay double, for the purchase, packaging and delivery of such love, irrespective of size, weight or transportational taxonomy knows no price.

I was reading through the daily news recently, and came across a rather curious piece about Marks and Spencer. It was made all the more curious when i thought about my special deliveries to my dearest of relatives. It would appear that the venerable high-street store has been charging higher prices for larger sizes of bras, upsetting the bountiful ladies with additional undergarment disbursements.

And I must confess, taking into account the overheads associated with all items of larger girth, post and bras alike, I find my equilibrium somewhat disturbed.

On the one hand one should not be penalised for what god hath sought to place on one’s plate, dutifully celebrating each in its turn, but on the other, does it not make a modicum of sense that if something is more generously-endowed it does indeed require more time, materials, energy and transportation to place said item on said shelf for perusers to peruse?

Well, it would appear that Marks and Spencer have adjusted their prices based on out-of-joint noses, thus creating what would seem to be an amicable solution to media and public alike.

However the veritable grey matter just won’t leave this be. For does this not now penalise those of a lesser-endowment who will in all likelihood, and unknowingly, now subsidise the additional costs of the larger garments? And does it not seem even mildly puzzling to other people that the ire of those of a more lithe physique has remained unfanned despite now suffering the same indignancies that those of a larger disposition once experienced?

Such happenstances are curious indeed.

I don’t care how much has been taken. I don’t even care how much is paid back. The fact that it has happened at all suggests neither an “accident”, nor a “mistake”, but an inbred lack of judgement and values that can not simply be erased with serious words and a deeply concerned look.

You’ve been dipping your hand in the till? You’re out! Stealing stationery from the cupboard? Out! Pick-pocketing on a grand scale? Did you see anything written down that stated it was against the rules? And did you apologise for it afterwards either in an apology video or perhaps with the writing of a cheque? Ah, well, that’s ok then. Now you be good boys and girls and carry on with running the country.

Of course trust can’t be switched on and off like a light bulb, which is a slight problem if trust makes up a big part of what you do in your life. The thing is, before everything kicked off we’ll admit that we thought you were all a bit on the shifty side; Cameron riding his bike whilst his chauffeur brought up the rear with his briefcase, Gordon Brown and his infamous Darth Vader impression, and Jacqui Smith’s slightly eclectic video tastes, but at least we thought underneath all the buffoonery you weren’t all bad, still able to fight the good fight and look out for us the best way that you knew how.

But not any more, that’s all gone. Sometimes the media get a bashing for their tendency to create mountains out of molehills, but here we have a prime reason to take their roughs with their smooths.

So what of the coming year, with the looming general election and a down-and-nearly-out Labour party? I’ve no doubt the Conservatives will be hoping to come out of this on top, with David Cameron’s frown being the deepest and most concerned of any I’ve seen on tv, but the last UK election had one of the lowest turnouts in history, and none of this will have done the trend any favours.

Quite the contrary in fact. I think what little faith we had in our country’s leadership has now been blown away on the stiff spring breezes. If life in public office is to have any meaning moving forward, it’s not just a new government that’s needed, it’s a sharp return back to the roots of public office: looking after the interests of the public above all else. Maybe that’s why they call it public office. Quite a revelation.

I want to follow on from my previous post on current job scarcity and posit a thought.

Let’s say that within the next 50 years, the population of the UK raises to 80 million, as is currently proposed. Let’s also say that through automation, technological transformation and efficiency drives, the number of viable jobs, particularly for graduates and trained professionals, is cut in half during that time. With 30% more people in the country looking for ways to put food on the table, and 50% less opportunity to do so, what do we do? Perhaps a better question is, what do all those people do, what does the government do? And what about another 50 years after that? And after that?

The answer can’t be more industries to soak up the surplus heads, because such industries will already be designed to be efficiently automated just to compete. The answer also can’t be more services and retail, because even now such industries are dominated by the lower-educated masses, and in all likelihood see themselves be automated. The day is already close where we’ll be able to walk into our local food hall, fill the trolley, and walk out again, the payment automatically deducted with nary a swipe nor a conveyor belt in sight.

Captain Picard of the USS Enterprise once spoke of humanity’s step away from material gains with the creation of limitless free energy and the matter transporter, capable of creating anything that people wanted for free, including both food and water. He noted no further need for “money”, and that people had taken on more “enlightened” views of life, released from their shackles of the daily grind, able to pursue directions that would have otherwise never been open to them when faced with the banality of paying bills.

And the crazy thing is that what might be at first glance laughed off as a flight of sci-fi fancy no longer looks unrealistic. It is after all inevitable that there will be vastly more people alive on the planet than there are jobs to do. With all the technical gains we are making, it is also a certainty that the majority of what we consider work today, transport, construction, sales, product development, will all be automated. And as a final death knell to the job market as we know it, it is also a certainty that at some point in the near future, all of the research and development into new energy sources will pay dividends and provide near-limitless energy, whether nuclear, solar, or geothermal.

So the big question, and one not even the great Jean-Luc Picard could answer, is how exactly are we going to boldly go where we’ve never gone before?

It’s no surprise to anyone that the jobless are finding it tough at the moment, and even less of one that things are set to get even tougher. The biggest surprise is that it is perhaps not in the way that everybody thinks.

I played out a short interview scenario not long back, tipping a nod to the ridiculous gate-keeping powers that are now lumped on the shoulders of job agencies around the UK. In a way such control was inevitable; the constant cost-cutting and efficiency measures that seem to permeate 21st century business thinking has always meant that recruitment would be eventually be outsourced to external specialists, if only to wade through the seas of applicants and to let through only the most suitable. The problem is, as the agencies themselves have been hit by the efficiency bat, “the most suitable” has become “the fastest selling”, so unless you fit an exact profile and tick the right boxes, you’ll be just too time consuming and costly to process.

And of course this has only been exacerbated now by the fact that there are far more people looking for far less jobs, which means that where perhaps five or ten years ago agencies could think about connecting with the jobseekers, working with them and giving a bit of personal service, nowadays they’re lucky to get a modicum of politeness, if any kind of reply at all.

Why is the already difficult situation going to get tougher? According to a recent report, the growth in high-skilled people is now significantly exceeding the growth in high skilled jobs. So not only are there less jobs, but things are actually getting even more difficult the better skilled you are. Oh, and just in case you were wondering, yes it is just as bad to tick too many boxes than not enough.

Does this mean that people like myself, highly skilled and educated workers, will need to consider moving abroad to continue their professional growth? With too few high performance workplaces in the UK, what other choices are there? We’ve seen car manufacturing disappear, the electronics industry has gone, the games development industry is en-route, if we’re not careful we could end up seeing the UK become nothing more than a haven for service and retail. Not a problem if you’ve already successfully reached the 24th century and are teleporting over to London for your weekly grocery shop, but in this era of gas-guzzlers and gatekeepers, it has the potential for making the UK’s current financial difficulties look like a mere blip on the landscape.