Intergenerational report shows advances in technology are slowing

YOU might be able to pay for your groceries with your phone, but better technology isn’t going to save our economy in the future.

MIAMI, FL - MARCH 04: Christine Rolin passes her iphone over a scanner as she uses the new mobile app for expedited passport and customer screening being unveiled for international travelers arriving at Miami International Airport on March 4, 2015 in Miami, Florida. Miami-Dade Aviation Department and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) unveiled a new mobile app for expedited passport and customs screening. The app for iOS and Android devices allows U.S. citizens and some Canadian citizens to enter and submit their passport and customs declaration information using their smartphone or tablet and to help avoid the long waits in the exit lanes. Joe Raedle/Getty Images/AFP == FOR NEWSPAPERS, INTERNET, TELCOS & TELEVISION USE ONLY ==

THIS is one of the big warnings from the Intergenerational Report released today: Advances in technology won’t save our economic bacon.

All those robots, driverless cars and 3D printers we hope will turn our workplaces into an episode of The Jetsons are not doing to be the economic salvation we might have hoped.

This is important because Australia has to improve productivity — the return from effort — and there are only so many ways to do this.

“There is evidence to suggest that the pace of technological development globally has slowed,” says the report which looks at the challenges set to emerge over the next 40 years.

“Many developed countries have experienced a slowdown in productivity growth over the past decade or so. Furthermore, some commentators suggest that future technological advances may not yield the productivity improvements seen in the past.”

So much for our futuristic solutions. The only way to counter that is greater investment in education and innovation. Which requires more revenue. Which requires greater productivity.

It’s the core issue of a set of projections which show we risk having fewer people paying for increasingly expensive services, such as welfare and health care.

The report says one way to bump up productivity is to get more people working. It expects that by 2054-55, 70 per cent of women aged 15 to 65 will have a job, compared to just 46 per cent in 1975 and 66 per cent today.

The Government has made clear older people will have to stay in the workforce for longer, even if they only work part-time, which itself pushes down the productivity figures. By 2054-55 the report anticipates 17.3 per cent of Australians aged 65 and over will have jobs, compared to 12.9 per cent now.

It doesn’t make specific recommendations but hints some of the policy changes of the past 20 years might already be out of date: “Part of the “productivity” slowdown may be the fading impact of past reforms.”

That might open a door for workplace reforms to match changes in the economy.

It’s the productivity issue which will drive how our tax system and our Budgets look, how our wages perform, and secure our jobs are. It’s the issue the Government must now address.

Better technology isn’t going to save our economy. Picture: Joe Raedle/Getty Images/AFP

Originally published as Intergenerational report shows advances in technology are slowing