Thirty years ago, Jeremy Rifkin predicted the end of work. Within a generation, he wrote in 1995, automation would leave most of the world’s workforce without work. The book was a bestseller, was translated into multiple languages and made its author a celebrity. The generation is now up. Global unemployment stands at about five per cent, employment-to-population ratios are at or near record highs across the OECD, and Rifkin has moved on to his twenty-third book.
