Interesting video and, yeah, we definitely have to think about how our society evolves over the next few decades. Having all the wealth owned by the few obviously isn't the answer as we found out a few centuries ago,

Time for something new.

I read Loveday Kingsford's commentary with interest. Particularly the critique of the commentator. GCPGrey is American teacher residing in the UK and has a great talent for explaining things in a humorous and very quick way. This was the longest and most detailed of his presentation so far - but it was only meant to be food for thought. Check out his explanation of MMP for instance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QT0I-sdoSXU
I guess you either like him or you don't.

and the fact that “too much land is owned by too few people” has been the root of all evil for All of recorded history.

FTFY

Housing is artificially scarce because I like not having someone else in my house while I’m gone.

That's got nothing to do with the scarcity of housing. We can build enough residences to house everyone but instead we leave it to the 'market' which chases profit instead of the best outcomes for society.

He likes sharing, but have someone else share his blanket, and he’ll collapse. “ownership” seems like something ingrained into the human mind.

Well it's not actually. It's trained into people and it can be trained out of them as well.

Sharing everything isn’t really possible.

Good job nobody's suggesting that then.

Even in hunter-gatherer tribal societies, jobs were the natural state.

Being 'employed' by someone else to make them richer is most definitely not a natural state.

It’s in the ground, where there are tons of it that mine owners are sitting on because it’s more profitable to wait for the price to go up to start mining.

The mine owners are probably doing that (just one of the reasons that private ownership of the communities resources is bad) but there's still an actual scarcity of resources.

"What is needed is a revolution in the educational sector, so we can start teaching young people how to build a creative, healthy and balanced life. We need to practice proper thinking"

There is at least one Intermediate school in Auckland which has a Thinking Based Learning Programme.

http://www.bis.school.nz/wordpress/?page_id=53

"I guess you either like him or you don’t." ( GCPGrey)

Yes, that's probably so. The style doesn't appeal.

The answer is a 'Basic Income' provided to everyone in society from cradle to grave. Enough for the bare necessities of life and as a right of citizenship. There are no dole bludgers if everyone gets it and there is much less incentive for corporations to put people out of work if they're going to be paying for them anyway ...

Productivity per worker has skyrocketed over the last 40 years with increasing automation, but wages have been held down. The benefits have all accrued to those who own the means of production and to a lesser extent to the dwindling part of the population that have skills that haven't been automated, yet ...

Yes, a minority will abuse it. But it would only be a minority, and better a bit of abuse than ever increasing unemployment and widening wealth inequality.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income

"Andrew Robinson Cooperatives can't be the full answer to this problem. Small cooperatives are potentially as replaceable as individuals, unless they go 'Amish' and opt out of the technological developments that render their members less employable."
It has been pointed out that"Jobs are not a natural state of affairs." In NZ a considerable percentage of the earning population has always been self employed but as far back as I can remember no government has given these workers the time of day. Co-operatives would never be the whole answer but public acknowledgement and emphasis on this possibility would be invaluable. Going"Amish" is a matter of personal preference but those who do lessen the crush for employment and this option does not necessarily preclude an individual from technological awareness or even innovation.

What. A. Depressing. Video.

Well wouldn't it be more beneficial for NZ to focus on the development of this highly intelligent tech, your always going to need people to develop and build the technology thats replacing jobs; thus creating jobs to balance things out; of course the amount of jobs created wont be equivalent to those lost, but its a start.

"Even hunter gatherers had jobs" not true. They had livelihoods, or a means of surviving, which is very different from the moneyed economy of today. Interestingly, it was the movement away from hunter gathering which sparked many of the problems we have today. Hunter gatherers had no surplus, nor could the product of their labour be stored. so they could not be parasitised by an overclass of monarchs, warlords or the like. Today our productive economy has to carry a massive burden of unproductive sectors and as this burden increases, so must growth - until we finally destroy the entire ecosystem. Come on smart people, let's find real solutions.

What. A. Depressing. Video.

Nope, a massively optimistic one. We can eliminate poverty and provide a good living standard without working the majority of people to death as we do now.

Ahmad, even if the presentation did not suggest that tech jobs were at risk too, do you honestly think we can compete at tech with the millions in India's silicon valley or the billions in China? Realistically, no, we can't. We have to look further forward than that.
There has been an obsession with the tech sector as our salvation for years and whilst there may be some novelty like Xero and the 3D Sports Visualisation, in the great scheme of things that's not going to be how NZ makes a living.

@hugokappes the proposal suggests how the unemployed by mechanization and the advancements of technology can survive by living off the land. It addresses the issue by resorting back to the days of bartaring within a small village/ in this case. Commune. The video link in this post by @julianwarren states that humans are the new horses..masses of unemployment due to mechanization/hi tech is inevitable.

Dont think I want to live in a commune, dont think most of the population are interested in living in a commune either, and i dont think that we should be like reservation Indians while the world of robots continues on around us, is this seriously the best we can come up with ? To withdraw into communes and shut out the progress of the outside world, not that that could ever happen anyhow someone would come knocking on the door wanting payment for something, then what do we do ? pay them in carrots ?? The whole thing is that if we dont look at this now and set in place a guideline for progress then most people will get left behind just surplus to requirements, I suppose we could fuel the machines with the surplus unnecessary humans ??

we could work two days a week and spend the other five growing yummy food and taking nana to the beach..... I am serious

From Fred above:

we could work two days a week and spend the other five growing yummy food and taking nana to the beach….. I am serious

Yes I agree, that's what I have been doing for the last 20 years. Well figuratively so to speak and I have been out in the provinces and doing it on basically no days work per week.

After last night's drubbing maybe that is at least some small ray of hope for any despondency and anyone thinking, now what and where to next?

Also I can offer an idea that may dissipate many of our concerns about future employment opportunity in NZ. The idea is simply about how to reduce the cost of living in NZ so that we do not need to find so many $$$ and therefore do not need to find so much work.

This is my premise:

A large part of the cost of living in NZ today is the cost of housing. This is either as the cost of home ownership or the cost of rental accommodation.

Therefore if we can find some way to really smash the cost of housing we should be able to break free from the current economic model which requires us to dedicate so much of our life to work (or to seeking work!).

So what is the idea?

It is a little bit technical to easily describe with clarity so I will take a break here and hope to come back to it later.