Future Compensation Shock

Abstract

It's 2015. Most of the world's "industrial economies" of the 1990s have been fully trans formed into "knowledge economies." Knowledge is, by far, the central resource of the world's econo my. The preeminence of knowledge has led to more effective processing and, as a consequence, has reduced the need for raw materials. Worker productivity has increased significantly, lessening the need for labor. (This was similar to the mid- 20th century change in farming, when better machinery increased farm productivity and reduced the need for farm workers.) Requirements for time, space, and capital also have diminished due to faster inventory turns, resultingfrom better information systems to determine inventory requirements. A major bonus of the knowledge economy is that knowledge, unlike physical assets, is inexhaustible. Knowledge offers unlimit ed possibilities for growth, for speed, for better products.