The sharing economy? Is that not socialism?

Some refer to this new economic wave as the “On Demand Economy” or “Collaborative Consumption” due to the fact that consumers can cheaply purchase almost anything they desire or need.

Baby boomers and older generations invested in cars, alternativity millennials and gen z’ers use Uber and Lyft.

The economy has transformed from being monopolistic (one major firm supplies all of one product) to a perfect competition.

What does this mean? How will this affect our careers and lifestyles in the future?

Now that buyers and sellers are numerous, components of monopolies have vanished and market prices are controlled by the consumers.

That sounds awesome, but what are the downsides to these innovations? Hard-working Americans are losing their jobs to robots because machine labor will save big businesses money in the future.

Carl Frey and Michael Osbourne are researchers from Oxford University who studied 702 careers and concluded that within the next 20 years, 47 percent of occupations will be run by machines.

This is because it is difficult for someone with no college degree to get a job with little to no physical work. Those same occupations are the ones where employees are being replaced with machines to save time and money.

Truck drivers, warehouse workers and assembly line workers will be some of the first to go. What happened to these blue collar workers? Where will they go?

Some that are unable to find new jobs end up on disability. 5.4 percent of American workers are on disability. That is one out of every 19 Americans. This is due to technological advancements replacing workers who do not have a college education which prevents them from moving up in the job industry.

Disability is more complicated than simply visiting the doctor and taking a test. If someone who works a blue collar job suffers from back pain or high blood pressure they could easily get disability, while others with a white collar job that had the same ailments would not qualify for disability.

A robot made for manufacturing will cost between $50,000 and $80,000. Companies can expect their robot to last between five and eight years. This will save them $100,000s of dollars in the future.

What does this have to do with the sharing economy?

Due to competition prices being lowered dramatically, companies need to make the cost of production as low as possible, to stay in business.

Gen Z listen up: College is almost necessary to secure work in the future. As technology advances, Gen Z must also advance in order to compete in the job market.

It is hard to predict the future, but the sharing economy is here to stay as many careers leave.