183: Can Leadership Be Automated?

<p>As a species, we like to dominate rather than be dominated, which is why we are trashing the planet so vigorously.  Given we like to be the boss, robots are not going to get very far whipping us up into a state of extreme engagement with the Vision and Mission statements.  We need the human touch and we still have got a long way to go just getting on with each other.</p> <p> </p> <p>Here is what caught my attention lately: The pandemic is widening the economic gap in Japan.  Economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic may have widened the gap between the nation’s rich and poor.</p> <p> </p> <p>The Isetan department store saw strong sales of jewelry.  The primary customers were wealthy regulars and the so-called new rich, including young managers of information technology firms and YouTubers who increased their earnings by taking advantage of the pandemic. </p> <p> </p> <p>Sales of luxury import cars priced over ten million yen were brisk. Sales totaled twenty two thousand, seven hundred and twelve units in 2020 surpassing the level seen the year before.</p> <p> </p> <p>The 225-issue Nikkei stock average went above the thirty thousand line for the first time in twenty years.</p> <p> </p> <p>Nomura Research Institute estimates the number of wealthy households, defined as those that hold net financial assets of more than one hundred million yen totaled one point three three million in 2019</p> <p> </p> <p>The number of regular employees rose three hundred and sixty thousand in 2020 from a year earlier but that of nonregular workers dropped seven hundred and fifty thousand.</p> <p> </p> <p>Basically your job is toast.  There is a machine or there will soon be a machine that can do it faster, better and cheaper than you.  Our skill set didn’t change much from the start of agriculture 12,000 years ago until the industrial revolution in the mid-18th century.  This last 150 years has been busy.  We have created a weapon that can destroy our race.  Who thought we would be that stupid?  Fifty years ago we didn’t beli