Most of us have been used to backing the ‘single income source’ horse in the race of life.
In today’s supercharged changing world of work, this a risky bet.
We have been sold certainty by the mythmakers of the industrialised system. They have sold us such myths as full employment, jobs for life, rising incomes, safe pensions, rising standards of living, safe investments, and so on. They are all just evaporating myths, that were never anything more than a story to increase compliance. Now we are petrified of uncertainty, the slightest hiccup causes panic, anxiety and meltdown.
In just 4 years, it’s predicted, that 45% of the job functions in the US could be done by AI. That’s 4 years, not 40!
All unskilled, semi-skilled and some skilled job functions are at risk to AI, what will we all do when work is no longer there?
The reliance on a single source, usually in the form of an employer, is no longer the safe option. Multiple income streams will increasingly be the only way to allow some security.
There are some fundamental challenges for people to adapt to a multiple-income life from a paid, single source, employment life. It will require learning new skills, becoming able to break away from shallow knowledge-based work to a much deeper focused meaningful work life.
Many will not be equipped emotionally or skilled enough to make this change.
The solution though is to look at what we need our income for, do we ever stop to question that?
If we need our income to service debts for houses and consumption of shit we don’t need, then perhaps the loss of a single substantial income coming from a safe job is going to be a real shock to many.
If we assessed our lives differently,looked to see that beyond the essentials, we really only need money to fund activities with the people who matter and to create happiness, memories and legacies that are meaningful for ourselves and the other humans we share the planet with. Then having a lower income coming from a range of flexible activities and less time at work is hugely more soulful and rewarding for all and more appealing.
After all, we are never going to say at the end of our journeys ‘shit, I wish I’d work longer’ or ‘if only I could have owned more stuff’ or ‘I am so glad I had that big house, big car, big….’
We are all going to have to say goodbye to a single income and accept that work will be more scarce.
Who knows, perhaps we can allow AI to do the work and we can do better things for ourselves and the human race.
Philip Dodson 