"End of Work" Clarified

Economics gurus such as Jeremy Rifkin (see his breakthrough book "THE END OF WORK") and I are not saying that work itself is an endangered phenomenon, just work as we know it. People will keep on doing productive things, but increasingly they will function as free, self-actualized agents. (If the future unfolds as it should, that is.)

In today's jobs, people typically work for someone else doing something they probably woundn't do if they didn't need the money. That's what's going away, as most large companies seek the leanest staffs possible.

Most of the in-transition people I talk to, freed up by downsizers such as AT&T, do not see large corporations as the sources of their future incomes. They are looking instead at small, nimble companies; new firms of their own (often just one person); and non-profits in education and government. Many haven't connected with their new money source yet, but most seem determined to find some way to get paid for doing what they do best and enjoy doing.

Tomorrow's new, better jobs won't be "jobs" so much as passion-driven activities associated with today's research scientists, volunteers, writers, actors, and entrepreneurs. Smart machines will do the dull, routine stuff -- and good riddance to it. We will do the fun, rewarding stuff.

The tricky part is getting from here to there -- to the positive state of automatic abundance. Today's rampant technogreed is widening the wealth gap as many in high places take the money and run. Change is in the wind, though. I'll be reporting on companies that are paving the way to self-empowered abundance for their employees while also taking full advantage of productivity-boosting technology.