The 4th Industrial Revolution is already here
Now playing on your handheld devices and in more robust growth is the Fourth Industrial Revolution — mobile computing, intelligent and remarkably dexterous robots, and the gradual fusion of human intelligence, artificial intelligence and machines. It will profoundly alter how the economy grows, and American politics.
The first three waves of industrialization — water power and steam to mechanize production, electric power to facilitate mass production, and electronics and information technology to automate production — were terribly dependent on massive investments in plant and equipment.
Robust economic expansions have been defined by consumers’ willingness to splurge on big-ticket items like cars and homes, and businesses’ appetite for grand projects — Fulton’s steamboat, railroads, auto factories and highways, and most recently, shale oil and pipelines. All that is changing. Businesses have learned to use capital and human resources much more efficiently. Productive young professionals seem more interested in being near the hubs of intellectual activity — city cores — and buying new gadgets and streaming services than owning a home, big lawn and the latest hot car.
At the cutting edge, Google was launched with $25 million in 1999 and grew into a $23 billion enterprise in five years. Now finding that two-year colleges don’t impart the technology skills businesses require, Google is offering eight- and 12-month certificate programs through Coursera that connects graduates with employers like Bank of America, Walmart and GE Digital.
Productivity growth is taking off again. This permits businesses to offer low-skilled workers opportunities for bigger pay increases, often through in-house training programs. As many businesses automate, they are training semi-skilled line workers to maintain machines and even become software engineers.
All this is happening just as Generation Z — those born after 1996 and raised in the jaws of the financial crisis — is entering the labor force. They are more focused on career and financial success,and are even more tech-savvy than the millennials who preceded them.
They’re more diverse — little more than 50 percent are white. Raised by baby-boom moms in non-traditional careers, they are more comfortable with women and men working side-by-side and in racially mixed groups..
Young folks are bargaining with colleges and often selecting the best value as opposed to the most prestigious choice — or skipping college altogether — and forcing universities to trim costs.
President Donald Trump grasps all this in ways his critics can’t comprehend, or is backing into it thanks to Federalist Society screening his judicial nominations and Ivanka promoting Labor Department apprenticeship programs.
The GOP may well get skewed in the midterms and Trump denied a second term, but history tends to focus more on presidential accomplishments than on character flaws. It will speak of a man who saw a new age coming but was vilified by those invested in the past.