Avi Parshionikar

People Get Ready

The explosive growth of technology over the past decade has taken the world by storm.

From playing brick breaker on my dad’s blackberry as a child to immersing myself in a virtual

reality world with an oculus rift as an 18-year-old, I, and the rest of gen-z, are experiencing the

magnitude of this growth firsthand. Robert w. McChesney and John Nichols’ “People Get

Ready” addresses the concerns of these monumental leaps in the technology, what it means for

our society’s productivity, economy, and how we can brace ourselves for a new era driven by

technology. To me, the book was engaging and brought up many good points about how we’re

currently ill equipped for this new era, but didn’t spend enough time discussing specific things

we can do as citizens to get ready, nor did he elaborate extensively on his proposed economic

solution. In addition, I think a large portion of the book became repetitive and tedious to read, as

a lot of it was discussing evidence that all supported the same ideas, like the negative effect of

technology on the economy and the removal of political issues from the table. Overall, however,

I thought the book was thought-provoking and did a good job highlighting the effect that

technology has on our economy and why our democracy is flawed in many ways.

A common public piece of public knowledge is that technology is, in fact, destroying jobs

at a rapid rate, which of the authors of the book agree with and support with much evidence.

However, many think that just as many jobs or even more jobs will be created in lieu of this

technological revolution. McChesney and Nichols disproved this, saying that more and more

people earn wages that are below the poverty line as citizens lose jobs to technology (page 80).

This is due to the fact that the job recovery rate is decreasing, meaning that people are having a

harder time finding jobs that would adequately replace their old ones and give them a stable

income. This was eye opening to me. I’d been under the impression that technological growth
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would, yes, eliminate jobs but create more specialized ones which would push much of society to

become more educated and tech savvy in order to fill those positions, ultimately progressing

humans as a race as an increasing population takes up more advanced jobs. The book revealed

that these specialized jobs were quite sparse. Many displaced workers would have trouble getting

the education or resources needed to learn how to fill these jobs anyways, and that automation

actually forces people to work jobs that are less complex, which would ultimately be replaced

with automation as well (page 96). As a computer science major, I’d always viewed my field of

study as the one which would pioneer humanity’s progress and innovation, but the

aforementioned insights made me realize that so much more goes into societal improvement than

just technological progress. Like the authors state throughout the book, our economy needs to be

restructured to accommodate this growth, which in turn means citizens must use their power

through democracy to induce policy change.

The current state of our democracy turns out to be an issue, however. The author speaks

of the rich using lobbying or campaign donations to “take issues off the table” in political

debates, which makes for a very corrupt economy that disregards many issues that are most

relevant to the common man and instead focuses on issues which concern the elite. This point

was reminiscent of Domhoff’s “Who Rules America?” in which he claims that the upper class

has a disproportionate say in making policy that our country operates on. These claims weren’t

surprising to me, as this seems to be a widely accepted theory of how power is distributed in

America. However, the authors emphasize that citizens can, in fact, minimize the power of the

corporate rich. An example that they used was the protection of net neutrality, a movement

spearheaded by citizens who fought for their right for free speech on the internet (page 260). The

initiative that people can take to have tangible influence on policy is something that the authors
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didn’t emphasize enough, in my opinion. They claimed that reforms to journalism should be

made so that constituents have an unbiased and true perception of the nation’s happenings so that

they can form their own opinions, but never truly gave a call to action to the reader. While it’s

true that there are many changes which still need to be implemented to improve journalism and

voter turnout, every citizen can take up the responsibility of becoming involved in politics and

learning about current issues which are important to them without having to wait around for

major changes in America’s media and journalism system. With the upcoming 2020 presidential

election, it’s becoming increasingly important for citizens to be informed about each candidates’

wide array of policies, some of which may seem somewhat radical in today’s political climate.

Most notable are Bernie Sanders’ policies, which include a promise for debt free

education and the expansion of social security and other government funded programs, which

also happen to be some of McChesney and Nichols’ proposed solutions to the growth of

technology. Former candidate Andrew Yang championed universal basic income as one of his

core policies, which was one of the book’s main proposed solutions to the technology revolution

as well. The authors stated that, if a universal basic income were to be implemented, all

government services should eventually become free as society becomes richer. They even stated

that “at some point, down the road, inequality is eliminated…” as a result of universal basic

income and the economic stimulation it induces (pg 251). This seems to be a very bold claim,

and as a reader I hoped that the authors would elaborate on this solution even more, rather than

truly bringing it up in the last chapter of the book. Topics like its’ long-term effects, counter

arguments, possible pitfalls could’ve all been acknowledged and discussed more throughout the

book. Many of Andrew Yang’s policies were aimed at defending against the incoming threat of

automation and its capacity to destroy millions of American jobs. Although he has since dropped
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out, it’s somewhat heartening to see that candidates are recognizing the rapidly changing

economic scene and vying for solutions that could alleviate the stresses that come with it. In my

view, the discussion of these seemingly radical policies on a public platform mark the beginning

of a positive shift in America’s opinion towards change. Contrary to what McChesney and

Nichols stated, policies which would greatly benefit American citizens are no longer being taken

off the table to the same extent they were before.

However, our democracy is nowhere near where it needs to be to truly give citizens a say

in issues which affect them the most. McChesney and Nichols call for a wide reform of our

democracy, and the implementation of multiple ideas which would ensure the growth of strong

democratic infrastructure. Elections through popular vote, the control of corruption, constraints

on war, free and reliable press, and the elimination of economic inequality are some of the main

traits that make up a strong democracy, according to the authors (page 253). I agree with all the

listed traits, but I think that any strong democracy should do all it can to enable citizens to take

part in elections and increase voter turnout. In my opinion, to achieve a true and significant

increase in voter turnout, voting must be made easier and quicker. A way to achieve this in the

future could be an online, government voting service. Of course, security is the main concern

that stifles the progression of this idea, but we can take advantage of the rapid improvement in

technology to address this. With monumental advances being made in computer science there are

sure to be innovations in cybersecurity that make the voting service essentially impervious to any

tampering. An online voting service would make it easier to keep track of votes and it would

mobilize millions of Americans who didn’t have the time or means to vote at a regular station.

With the implementation of the policies that would rebuild a strong democratic

infrastructure, citizens can become informed of the change that’s transforming America and
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influence policy that will restructure society so that it doesn’t collapse under the increasing

pressure that technological innovation puts on it. Reliant on these policies is the hope that the

children, like me, who grew up playing on blackberries can grow old in a society where

technology complements, improves, and adds fulfillment to their lives.