Gaby Hinsliff may be right to link the current lack of starter jobs to recent increases in minimum wage and national insurance costs for employers (Do you remember your first crappy job? Today’s young people would wish for half your luck, 20 February). But there’s more to it.
In the 250-plus years between the invention of the water-powered spinning jenny and artificial intelligence, we have developed technology and technique with the primary aim of reducing the number of people necessary to employ for a given amount of output. On a finite planet, the amount of output must eventually stabilise. We cannot maintain for ever the notion that everyone must have a job in order to be allowed to have a life.
Donald Simpson
Rochdale, Greater Manchester
