PEOPLE ARE REDUNDANT

Press, 21 November 1981, Page 14

PEOPLE ARE REDUNDANT

By

WHIM WHAM

Hundreds of European and American businessmen, confronted by labour disputes at home, are now flocking to the small town of Oguchi to inspect and snap up Japan’s latest export product: completely automated factories which can churn out manufactured industrial goods without the aid of human workers . . . robots, an automated production line and six computers . . . News. We have no Workers in this Factory - The human Hand is obsolete — Greedy and idle and refractory, A Debit in the Balance-sheet, The worthless human Labour Force Is superseded, like the Horse. This Plant’s entirely automated, No living Soul to hire, or sack; Disputes likewise eliminated — Our Robots never answer back. Computers neither claim nor need More than the Data which we feed. Machines for Men! The old Nightmare Still coming true, the Substitution Of Plugs for People, everywhere — The new Industrial Revolution. Next Step, if Truth’s behind the Rumours, A Marketplace without Consumers! Efficiency consumes Itself — The Moral (if I’m not obtuse) is, Nobody on that workless Shelf Consumes what Nobody produces! What’s the Solution, if not from Plague, Famine, or the Neutron Bomb? * ♦ ♦ ♦