Before the sudden health apocalypse called Covid-19, the big talk was about the fourth industrial revolution. Advances in technology and the potential of digitisation have been punted as real game changers owing to sheer “velocity, scope and systems impact”.
Its potential to multiply global wealth has drawn attention but has also brought to the fore the greatest threat to societies: inequality.
There are concerns, particularly in developed countries, about the exponential rate at which digital technologies are disrupting every industry and transforming social, political and economic norms, and how these changes will expose and deepen rifts in those societies.
The capacity for information sharing, particularly on social media, has revealed the ugly side of the world’s digital advancements. Digital platforms have become the oxygen to extremism and dangerous ideologies, thus fomenting conflict within and between groups and communities.
While the rest of the world is fearing the worst of what inequality can do to societies, their fears are already a present reality in SA. As a society, we cannot jump on the global bandwagon of lamenting the uncertainty and inequality of outcomes that the fourth industrial revolution may bring because we are already living it.
In their book The Spirit Level, a comprehensive analysis of levels of inequality in developed countries and its implications, Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett show that inequality lies at the root of much of social ills.
The quality of life is worse in more unequal societies where poverty and riches are neighbours separated by a fence or street, as is the case in many parts of SA. Crime rates, violence, drug use and mental health problems are higher; life expectancy and literacy rates are lower; there is a larger incidence of teenage pregnancy and obesity; and other non-communicable diseases are a much bigger problem, while social mobility is curtailed.
If SA does not address inequality, it cannot hope to improve the quality of life of all people as well as guarantee its economic and political stability and sustainability.
A World Bank report titled "Overcoming Poverty and Inequality in SA: An Assessment of Drivers, Constraints and Opportunities" released in March 2018, establishes it as fact that SA is one of the most unequal countries in the world. Chapter 3 of the report describes and expounds on the different types of inequality, covering consumption inequality, inequality of opportunity, wage inequality, wealth inequality and low intergenerational mobility.
The fourth industrial revolution is likely to lead to labour market disparities with high skill and high pay jobs and low skill and low pay jobs, and little else in the middle. The most valuable currency of this revolution is talent, meaning those who already enjoy educational and economic advantages stand to gain. Owners of capital – shareholders and investors – and the innovators they collaborate with are the big winners. The demand for those with less education will decrease.
This is a fear in developed countries but again, this is already the lived reality in SA. High unemployment and, even worse, high youth unemployment, are a serious concern. The unemployment rate among youth aged 15 to 24 is 55.2% and is the highest of any age bracket. People with qualifications below matric are less likely to find jobs.
SA’s unemployment is structural. The economy is not geared towards absorbing those with low skills and is skewed in favour of the services that are dominated by sectors such as finance.
The reality is that SA needs to create millions of jobs to pull millions out of poverty. Beyond battling Covid-19 there are stark challenges facing our society today. We should not lose sight of this.
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