Judgment Day is coming, but unlike the futuristic cyborgs sent through time in the movie franchise Terminator, the target in this story is jobs. Automation is here already, but in the next 10 to 15 years there is a growing sense of an economic shift that is going to result in massive job losses worldwide.

A study released in November 2017 by the McKinsey Global Institute predicts that 800 million jobs could be lost globally by 2030 due to automation. A year earlier, in November of 2016 Sunil Johal and Jordann Thirgood of the Mowat Centre at the University of Toronto's School of Public Policy & Governance released a report suggesting that in Canada 1.5 million to 7.5 million jobs could be at risk. Those potentially being affected range from typical blue collar jobs to white collar professions such as lawyers, doctors and engineers.

In Ontario where retailers and restaurants are experiencing a cash crunch due to the hike in minimum wages to $14 an hour as of Jan. 1, 2018 and $15 as of Jan. 1, 2019, will automation be a solution to combat rising wages while trying to manage reasonable price increases? RT7 Incorporated which sells The Solo Series, a self serve order kiosk launched an advertising campaign suggesting that a switch to their unit would work out to a wage of a $2.50 an hour in comparison to $15.

McDonald's already incorporates self order kiosks, while retail giants like Walmart, Home Depot and Canadian Tire to name a few all have self checkout stations. Banks prefer you do your banking online and at ABM's and ATM's rather than face to face. Coming soon, driverless cars that will damage delivery services, along with the taxi and trucking industries. In Michigan, pizza giant Domino's is piloting driverless pizza delivery. It won't get hand delivered to your door, instead you have to pick it up curbside.

Lost in all the automation and artificial intelligence developments, what is the world going to do with so many unemployed and underemployed people? Is Canada's social safety net equipped to deal with record level unemployment? An increasing wealth divide and the continued erosion of the traditional middle class morphing into the working poor is scary and troubling. I am worried for today's youth and their future job prospects. Will you be able to buy a home, raise a family, travel and enjoy life? An idea that is circulating is that instead of focusing on minimum wages the shift should be to minimum incomes. As many people have found out in Ontario since Jan. 1, hours can be cut and benefits lost, but a guaranteed income is just that.

While we must adjust to the shifting economy, we must not lose our humanity, and this includes all those industries embracing automation with dollar signs dancing in their heads. Workers spend their money that helps contribute to society, machines don't. Once disposable income disappears what will be left? The machines certainly don't care.
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