O, Brave New World!

(Cartoon and column by David Horsey and published 8/27/13 by the Los Angeles Times.)

Once upon a time, in the 1960s and '70s, futurists predicted that a day was nearing when we would not have to worry about job numbers. Robots and other kinds of technology would free us from needing to work and we could spend our days pursuing personal adventures or sitting under a tree writing poetry. Well, robots and technology, as well as other transformations of the world economy, have indeed eliminated jobs, but those who have been "freed" from labor are, at best, sitting under trees writing applications for unemployment payments and, at worst, sitting by freeways writing cardboard signs to solicit money for food.

Be careful what you wish for.