As we boldly move into the 21st century, it is becoming apparent that mass manufactured goods will continue to become cheaper and more plentiful. The rise of computer AI, robotics and globalization is all converging to create an environment where most items can be produced quickly and in large volume. The future will feature ever less expensive consumer electronics, appliances and clothing. It will also feature many fewer human workers. So how will people make money and what will they do for work?
Since the beginning of the 19th century people have been trained for the industrial economy, a dystopia of gigantic factories and high speed machinery. Workers stood on long assembly lines dutifully cramming the same widget into the same appliance again and again. Then, in the mid 20th century, came the rise of the office economy. This system relied on vast cube farms populated by armies of college-educated workers mindlessly entering data into spreadsheets. Now we are rapidly transitioning into the information age, where individuals are often self-employed or contract workers. A typical workspace for these intrepid pioneers may consist of sitting in a Starbucks with a MacBook Pro and an espresso.
But many of us will still long to use our hands just as much as our minds in the information age. For those people, the obvious solution is handcrafting one-of-a-kind goods for direct sale to the public. We can already see how this new style of production is spreading quickly. Online distribution platforms like Etsy, eBay and even Amazon are providing today’s entrepreneurial craftsmen with powerful retail outlets that have a truly global reach. It is now possible to sell your unique creations almost anywhere, to almost anyone.
And as the global marketplace inevitably becomes flooded with commoditized manufactured goods, handmade alternatives will become increasingly desirable. No mass-produced cell phone or coffee mug can possibly compare to the warm, personalized touch of a handcrafted sterling silver keychain or a handmade monogrammed leather wallet. The care, expertise and skill that goes into the creation of handcrafted goods is immediately and viscerally apparent to even the casual observer. Handmade will eventually become a byword for luxury and refinement in a world awash in mass produced clutter.
In the end, the profound changes the world is currently experiencing will resolve positively. People cannot be truly happy in life unless they feel they are doing something meaningful. Working on an assembly line or in an office cubical might have put food on the table in decades past, but I think few people found it fulfilling. Today we stand on the precipice of perhaps the most radical change since the industrial revolution – a world where many traditional white collar and blue collar workers retool to produce handcrafted luxury goods.
