In a recently published article, Zoë Baird, President of the Markle Foundation, argues that we must broaden the benefits of advances in information technology to create a vibrant economic future for all Americans.
Zoë Baird starts with the following assessment: “The United States has the opportunity to become a world leader in defining digital age jobs. We are already significantly ahead in creating technology tools and services, and we are on the threshold of a new era of data-driven progress where the jobs of the future will not look like the jobs of the past. The economic growth technology has generated to date has not been widely shared, however, and we therefore also face intractable unemployment, widespread decline in real wages, and a growing national bitterness and divisiveness.“
The article focuses on three promising areas for broadbased job creation: “scaling up the export of services over the Internet, utilizing the massive amounts of data now available, and deploying the collective power of social media.“
Zoë Baird’s message to the presidential candidates as they prepare themselves for the first presidential debate in Denver: “inspire the jobs of the future and articulate opportunities for private businesses, what the government has to contribute and how individuals should be preparing themselves.“
