- The End of Work
"The End of Work: The Decline of the Global Labor Force and the Dawn of the Post-Market Era" is a
non-fiction book by Americaneconomist Jeremy Rifkin , published in 1995 byPutnam Publishing Group .cite book| author = Rifkin, Jeremy| title = The End of Work: The Decline of the Global Labor Force and the Dawn of the Post-Market Era| publisher = Putnam Publishing Group| year = 1995| id = ISBN 0-87477-779-8] In 1995, Rifkin contended that worldwide unemployment would increase asinformation technology eliminates tens of millions of jobs in themanufacturing ,agricultural andservice sector s. He traced the devastating impact ofautomation onblue-collar ,retail andwholesale employee s. While a small elite of corporatemanager s andknowledge worker s reap the benefits of the high-techglobal economy , theAmerican middle class continues to shrink and theworkplace becomes ever more stressful. As themarket economy andpublic sector decline, Rifkin predicted the growth of a "third sector "- voluntary and community-based service organizations - that will create new jobs with government support to rebuild decaying neighborhoods and providesocial services . To finance this enterprise, he advocated scaling down themilitary budget , enacting avalue added tax on nonessentialgoods and services and redirecting federal and state funds to provide a "social wage " in lieu ofwelfare payment s to third-sector workers.Criticism
Philosopher of economics Constantine George Caffentzis is critical of Jeremy Rifkin andAntonio Negri as two of the major contributors to the "end of work" discourse and literature of the 1990s which he argues has been theoretically and empirically refuted.cite paper| author = Caffentzis, Constantine George| title = The End of Work or the Renaissance of Slavery? A Critique of Rifkin and Negri| date = 1998 | url = http://www.korotonomedya.net/otonomi/caffentzis.html| accessdate=2007-08-21]References
External links
* [http://www.foet.org/books/end-work.html Jeremy Rifkin: The Foundation of Economic Trends: Books: The End of Work]
* [http://multitudes.samizdat.net/article1927.html The End of Work or the Renaissance of Slavery? A Critique of Rifkin and Negri]
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