The Industrial Revolution 2.0

The technological revolution is in danger of becoming the industrial revolution 2.0! Hipsters with funny shoes and skinny latte’s are taking the place of the top capped workers shipped out each morning carrying their bait with them for a day down the mines.

Google and Facebook run shuttle buses that pick up their hipster workers from the centre of town and ferry them out to their offices, to sit, to eat and code, and work. The difference of course is these hipsters enjoy way better living standards than the old coal miners and factory workers. But in an age where people say no to poverty and slavery and yes to consumerism, are we just seeing a new industrial revolution. Where the coal company needed your strong arms to mine coal, Google, Facebook and Amazon needs your strong brains to mine data, then turn that data in to gold.

On the face of these companies they ooze technological innovation, but at their core they are still pushed by the same values as the industrialists, money and profit for their shareholders. If this was not so, why would they avoid paying their UK taxes?