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Essay / The New Ruthless Economy - 2016
Over the past 20 years, the United States economy has undergone many drastic changes. Some economists argue that many of the changes that have occurred have been positive. However, Simon Head wrote "The New Ruthless Economy" with the intention of debunking some theories about the booming economy and directly opposing the idea that the many changes occurring in the workforce over the past 20 years have been detrimental to the economy itself. The first main idea of the book is the correlation between the stagnation of workers' wages and the rise of information technology in the 1990s. A widely held belief is that information technology is one of the main factors that contributed to the "golden years" of the 1990s, but Head believes that while this simplified some things and helped businesses grow, it left the worker in an uncomfortable position. The rise of information technology began to threaten the job security of many Americans, as machines were increasingly integrated into the workplace, completely replacing the need for human labor. The original cause of inequality in the United States was the increasing globalization of manufacturing. Low wages for international workers caused factories to leave the United States, and many Americans had to lose their jobs to foreign parties, hurting the economy. This was happening as companies developed the concepts of reengineering and enterprise resource planning (ERP). These new developments have been designed to simplify and accelerate specific business processes by integrating information technology into an organization. However, these concepts also relied on the use of ancient industrial assembly line techniques, or what we call the principles of "Fordism" in order...... middle of article...... results), in turn influencing work results (job satisfaction, absenteeism, work motivation and performance) (Hackman, JR and Oldham, GR 1976). There must be something managers are missing with the constant dissatisfaction of employees. I think exactly what Simon Head thinks about the workforce, that the principles need to be changed in order to stabilize it. However, I do not believe that the workforce is or will ever be stable. Much of unemployment is due to lack of motivation to pursue activities or the know-how to interact socially. We can only question any unethical practices and do our best to maintain a stable economy for our country. As long as we have happy workers, they will continue to go to work and work hard, come home and work hard, and spend the money they earn on their days off. Any worries about the economy, cost of living or unemployment will disappear.