Middle management, too, is under threat. Under the euphemistic banner of business process reengineering, companies are firing a quarter of managers. Even President Clinton can't control corporate America in its feeding frenzy over the China market. They will never learn that technology is the problem, not the solution. Today, productivity is delivered by a technology needing only a few machine minders.
National economies can no longer grow themselves out of unemployment.
Growth has been uncoupled from employment. It is created by the unique skills of a few entrepreneurial knowledge workers, not the labour of low-grade service and production workers. The continuous innovation of entrepreneurs is the real generator of wealth. Their income will increase substantially as countries compete in a global market for their wealth-generating services, without which states will drown in a whirlpool of poverty. Innovation happens in self generating hot spots with incentives that stimulate investment and profit.