Industrial revolution initiated an enormous development of industry. Suddenly projects never thinkable before became feasible, and people were streaming into the factories, where the owner never seemed to get enough workers in order to fulfil the orders. But human-beings fooled themselves when they thought this could go on and on for ages. When customers started placing fewer orders, the factory suddenly had too many workers; the owners fell behind with paying the wages, and so people had to stay at home and had to cope with the loss of income and of their jobs.
Not so long ago we went through another revolution – the information and communication technology revolution. Entire production processes became fully controlled by microprocessors, sensors started measuring parameters on site, and computer-controlled robots started taking over jobs formerly executed by the ordinary worker. This had a similar effect on society – at first there was a big boom until the market became tight, and dictated by the necessity of making profit, many jobs were lost and people let go.
If you look at it today – there are not too many opportunities left of how we can make society right. Should we continue destroying more jobs than we can create, it might take a while alright, but at the end of the day, there will be only a hand full of people who actually work and have an income. We can’t afford to let everybody behind. We can’t afford to leave entire continents exposed to impoverishment.
So is it the battle to become rich, or is it the incredible pressure in some parts of society, what drives society? In most cases it is a bit of both. But we have to ask ourselves: Which are the values we follow? I think the central values are key to this. As long as everything is about money, society is bound to fail.
We need to think about what is important to us. There are social values that do count, but often become forgotten or we give priority to other things. What about friends, about caring for other people, about charity? Do we really have to wear the latest fashion, have the latest car, gadget or buy our entire furniture new when we move? Do we really have to do everything ourselves in order to save money? Shouldn’t we give other people an opportunity to earn some money too? Isn’t the right balance of every angle of our life better for us? These are just questions, I know. And there are certainly more questions than answer. But please do me a favour and think about it…