In its heyday, Kodak employed 140,000 people. Today, Kodak's replacement Instagram employs under 30. Is it possible for the middle class to thrive when the companies we use the most diminish the labor force, asks Jaron Lanier in his provocative book 'Who Owns The Future?' HuffPost Live brought together experts to discuss how the economy will adapt to a tech-driven future.
Jennifer Indovina, founder of the energy start-up Tenrehte Technologies, argues that innovation and creativity are the new skills necessary, as "out of the death of Kodak and Xerox and a bunch of other companies will come the birth of all these very interesting start-ups, that in the next 20 years are going to be the stable economy."
Bruce Fisher, Director of Economic and Policy Studies at Buffalo State College, pushed back, arguing that while the creative class will continue to thrive, it's the producer class that will struggle, as "right now, frankly, keeping those folks engaged, politically engaged, socially engaged, keeping them alive in many cases... is very very challenging in many places in the United States."
Also joining host Ricky Camilleri were Bianca Bosker, Huffington Post Executive Tech Editor, and Hanson R. Hosein, Director of the Digital Media Program at the Univ. of Washington.