“You know many of them: phone companies, cable operators and cellular companies are the obvious ones.”
This thought is offered by Andy Kessler, author of Eat People and Other Unapologetic Rules for Game-Changing Entrepreneurs, who wrote an op-ed in the WSJ about the disturbingly varied and large number of jobs that are likely to disappear in the future—because the work will be replaced by machines, computers, and/or shifts in how business is done.
Kessler writes that “sponges” (real estate brokers, lawyers, and others who must pass a test that limits who can do these jobs) and “slimers” (folks in finance and on Wall Street) are among the workers who are less likely to have work down the line. Also at risk are “thieves,” which would include anyone who works for thieving companies. Kessler explains who the thieves are, and why there may be less need for them in the future:
Thieves have a government mandate to make good money and a franchise that could disappear with the stroke of a pen. You know many of them: phone companies, cable operators and cellular companies are the obvious ones. But there are more annoying ones—asbestos testing and removal, plus all the regulatory inspectors who don’t add value beyond making sure everyone pays them. Technologies like Skype have picked off phone companies by lowering international rates. And consumers are cutting expensive cable TV services in favor of Web-streamed video.