Raising Robot Proof Children

A recent government/educational report claims that by the year 2030 nearly thirty percent of the American workforce currently employed will have been replaced by automated machines, by robots. It may sound like a sci fi original on Netflix, but it’s actually the hard reality of the world the next generation will face when looking for work.

This is not the first time in Western civilization that technology has threatened the livelihood of the masses. Back in the 1800’s a group in England calling themselves the Luddites rampaged through factories, destroying machines that had taken many of their jobs away from them. The Luddites were finally quelled by the British constabulary and by a court system that banished most of them to Australia for life — those that it didn’t hang.

But becoming a Luddite is not really an option for the youth of today who will be the workers of tomorrow.

In order to keep their kids from living at home until forever, parents should make sure their children learn how to code — this will allow them to communicate with ‘the enemy’, that is, robots. Companies are going to need lots of code-savvy employees to interact with and program their robots. Parents should also make sure their kids don’t neglect the liberal arts — such as music, art, and literature. This helps them to think creatively, which is something that robots are not going to be able to do. Ever.

And finally, parents should encourage their children to avoid entry level service jobs — which are a dead end nowadays — and instead go for entrepreneurial enterprises of their own. In other words, encourage them to run that lemonade stand this summer! .