Innovation within the Monetary System Can Create New Work and Sustainable Abundance

Lietaer argues that there will be less and less need for people to work in the future. Among other sources he quotes a UK survey funded by the Department of Education and Employment, which was published by Business Strategies, a consulting company with ‘close links to the treasury’. This report concludes that no new full-time employment is to be expected in Britain during the next ten years. The report gives an optimistic forecast for self-employment and part-time jobs, but no new full-time jobs are expected to be created. Similar findings were made by the Cranfield School of Management, which, on behalf of the European Commission, reports a dramatic increase in part-time or fixed-term (up to three months) jobs at the end of the twentieth century. The Cranfield School of Management found the largest increase in the Netherlands, where 70 per cent of all companies increased this portion of employment. In Germany, Italy, Finland and Sweden, 50 per cent of corporations were increasing the share of part-time employment and in the rest of Europe 30 to 50 per cent of corporations were doing it. According to Lietaer (see ref. 28), ‘The International Metalworkers Federation in Geneva forecasts that “within 30 years as little as 2 per cent of the world’s current labor force will be needed to produce all the goods necessary for total demand”.’