Which is another way of saying some of you may be worthy of being assimilated.

In reality, a place I visit from time to time, very few people over the age of 40, having lost their employment, can afford to retrain. They have families and bills to pay, and no government program will ever adequately cover the costs.

If you are over 50, well, too bad. In the year 2017 you need to be proficient in MS Word, PowerPoint, Access, Excel and also Sage (used to be Simply Accounting, used to be Accpac) in order to qualify to be ... wait for it ... a receptionist.

Most people find they are better off working part-time at Hortons.

Numerous esteemed publications such as The Economist suggest many categories of employment will be even more devastated by automation, and one of the obvious ones is transportation.

Advances in autonomous vehicles have already produced self-driving trucks. Imagine self-driving transports clearing themselves at border points using preprogrammed logbooks and pre-cleared customs documents all managed by computers.

Imagine if drone delivery of consumer products from Amazon becomes an everyday experience. Clouds of drones travelling through regulated air corridors, like bike lanes on the roads, descending down into designated delivery “chimneys” where pickup terminals are located. Imagine how many drivers and customer service staff will be out of jobs. There are other examples if you think about it.

In this context, the concept of a minimum guaranteed income does not seem so outlandish. I would contend the era of what I would call “peak employment” has already passed us by.

Finance Minister Bill Morneau has already suggested “gig employment” is here to stay. In the future, employment will be a luxury for the lucky few. Like robot repair technicians, computer programmers and, of course, librarians.

