The Future of Trade Unions

European Straits #16

Dear all,

I have now written three quarters of the ‘HEDGE’ manuscript, of which you can have an overview here. Now comes the time to write the fourth part dedicated to discussing the future of liberalism in the Entrepreneurial Age. In the coming weeks, I will share related ideas and concepts which I hope will inspire thoughts and reactions.

One section of the book will discuss the future of trade unions and the new role they need to imagine if they want to effectively empower their members in the Entrepreneurial Age. One issue with technology is what I have elsewhere called “downward augmentation”: the fact that technology compensates for a lack of skills to execute most tasks. The more technology there is, the less educated you need to be to provide high quality services in a more productive way.

For less educated workers, this is good news indeed. It means that the barriers will be lower when they try to access the job market. And once they have a job, they’ll be able to deliver a high…