Digital: The Useless Class - People who are not just Unemployed, but Unemployable

People must engage in purposeful activities or they go crazy. So what will the useless class do all day?

Economically redundant people spend increasing amounts of time within 3D virtual reality worlds which provides them with far more excitement and emotional engagement than real world. This, in fact, is a very old solution. For thousands of years billions of people have found meaning in playing virtual reality games - we call them “religions”. Religions invent imaginary laws. Religious go through life trying to gain points in their favorite virtual reality game. If you pray every day, you get points; if you forget to pray, you lose points. If by the end of your life you gain enough points, then after you die you go to the next level of the game (a.k.a. heaven).

In the Indian province of Tamil Nadu, Jallikattu has been known to be practiced since 400 BC and finds its origin to Indus Valley Civilization. A bull is unleashed into a crowd of people who attempt to grab the hump on bull's back with both arms and hang on to it while the bull attempts to escape. Participants hold the hump for as long as possible, attempting to bring the bull to a stop. In some cases, participants must ride long enough to remove flags on the bull's horns. When this practice was banned, there were protests and Jallikattu was revived this year. A made-up game that is invested with so much meaning that it becomes reality.

What would you say of IPL - the Indian Premier League? After its roaring success in providing meaningful engagement post-work, we see more leagues being tried. Bahubali: The Conclusion provided more than 100,000 person-years worth meaningful post-work engagement.

When every IT company in India has to cut jobs - a total of 1 million jobs in 3 years, TCS from House of Tatas does not. Tatas carry an estimated bad debt of more than Rs. 1 trillion which needs to be written down. They can, however, hold on to this common man’s money because they provide meaningful engagement to useless people - by investing Rs. 600 million every year in public relations exercise to position themselves as a compassionate brand.

Trade unions, which have been restricted to factories, have been trying to get a foothold in the Rs. 7 trillion IT sector that employs nearly four million people. Wipro plans to use artificial platform Holmes to automate some aspects of projects to save about Rs. 3 billion. Trade unions will definitely try to slow this down to provide meaningful engagement to useless people. The IT industry caters to the global marketplace that needs certainty and 24x7 service because of the very critical work they do. In absence of proper legal protection for work to be done in 24 hours and susceptibility to several demands from unionized employees, it is going to be troublesome for IT industry.

Virtual realities are likely to be key to providing meaning to post-work world. Possibilities are endless.

Meaning is generated by imagining rather than by working