The K-cup changed everything

 Six years ago something revolutionary came upon our workplace. We got a Keurig coffee maker. With its arrival, the era of the communal coffee pot came to an inglorious end.  

As with most change, it did not come without controversy. A small, vocal group began to protest. Many of them were invested heavily in the communal coffee pot you see, with its extensive payment and brewing schedule (whether there was a cleaning schedule remains uncertain). 

The communal coffee pot had been a part of office life for decades. What about the costs, they cried? K-cups are pricey and wasteful! What about the community that arose form maintaining a coffee pot together? Would coffee breaks, as we know it, come to an end? 

The protesters were loud but outnumbered. They put up a good fight but ultimately lost out to the progress-at-all-costs horde. And so without a shot fired, the age of cheap, weak office coffee was over. 

While the parallels to communism are apparent (how can one possibly not draw a parallel?), the event could also be viewed as a microcosm of what's happening in our world today. The decline of manufacturing jobs in Canada and the U.S. is causing great angst. And while President Trump likes to claim it's all due to China, technological automation is having an even bigger impact.  

While it sounds cliché, technology will make momentous strides in the next fifty years, transforming our lives perhaps like never before. But as with all good things, there's a trade-off. 

Take vehicles as an example. Taxi drivers already loathe Uber because it steals their jobs, but they must truly dread the oncoming fleets of self-driving vehicles. While we might scoff at computers being better drivers than humans, the self-driving car will likely save billions in insurance claims and most importantly, save thousands of lives every year. Who knows, driving a car may one day become as safe as air travel (and for all of you who still think driving is safer than flying, I say, C'mon!) 

The natural human tendency will be to fight this new era and protect existing jobs, as is already happening in the U.S. The so-called "rust belt" undeniably shifted the election in favour of a protectionist presidential candidate. 

While their voice is still loud, it's diminishing; in ten years it will likely turn into a whisper. For good or bad, jobs will change. New opportunities may arise that will offer unskilled workers secure, high-paying jobs once again. But more likely than not, government will need to find ways to ease the transition into the digital age.

It's a brave new world when it comes to today's economy, but when was it not? In 1812, a group of English textile workers called Luddites destroyed factory machinery in fear that new technologies and low-skilled workers would rob them of their jobs. Given the conditions they faced at the time, it was an understandable revolt. But new technologies didn't mean the end of employment for textile workers or an end to the British economy. 

The irony of capitalism is that it must destroy to create. New advancements destroy thousands of jobs while creating thousands more. The gains and losses don't always balance in the short-term, though, and when the losses outnumber the gains, it creates hardship. 

Much like end to our beloved communal coffee pot, some are impacted more than others.