There are always a few items we’ve read during a week that deserve more attention but don’t make it into our regular posts. So we bundle them for the Friday roundup.
Here’s this week’s bundle. If there’s a theme (and there is, kinda) it’s the changing world of work and mobility.
Pew Research Center: Public Predictions for the Future of Workforce Automation
A 2013 study by researchers at Oxford University posited that as many as 47% of all jobs in the United States are at risk of “computerization.” And many respondents in a recent Pew Research Center canvassing of technology experts predicted that advances in robotics and computing applications will result in a net displacement of jobs over the coming decades – with potentially profound implications for both workers and society as a whole.
The American Interest: WaPo Reporter Moves to Cow Town, Keeps Job
Needless to say, Ingraham probably wouldn’t have been able to move halfway across the country while holding on to his job at the Post 20 or even 10 years ago. But in the future, more and more people are going to have this type of opportunity—to move somewhere inexpensive, with a great environment for raising children, while keeping that well-paying knowledge worker job at a company based in a major city. Telework is on the rise in America and around the world…
Stateline: Why Taxing the Wealthy Can be Trouble for States
State personal income tax revenue was three times more volatile during the 2000s than during the previous two decades, said Rick Mattoon, a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. In a 2012 study, he found that the wild swings were driven by nonwage income, such as gains from the sale of stocks and real estate.
…State Rep. Vincent Candelora, a supporter of the rainy day fund legislation, said he’s heard that millionaires are moving out of Connecticut to avoid the state’s high taxes, including the recently raised estate tax. “Many of our residents have homes in other states, so they’ll change residency to avoid the tax,” he said.
New Geography: Your City is Not the Next Silicon Valley
Writing in the Harvard Business Review, the University of Toronto’s Roger Martin dubs this change the “rise of the talent economy”. Martin notes that in the 1960s, 72% of the top 50 U.S. companies owed their wealth to “the control and exploitation of natural resources.” Today, however, only 10% of the nation’s top companies are industry-based. Instead, over 50% of America’s companies are talent-based, such as Google, Apple, and Microsoft.
