Arthur Powers: Creativity, caring will be needed

Regarding Vivek Wadhwa’s July 27 column “The capitalism we need for our jobless future”: Twenty years ago, I directed a USAID project in urban areas of the Brazilian northeast, with the task of finding job training for at-risk youth. It was a heartbreaking task. While there were a few bright spots, such as a program we developed to train teenage girls to repair computers, most of the jobs were vanishing rapidly, replaced by automation. (In rural areas, where land was available, the situation was better. Rural young people could live well when they engaged in intensive, sustainable small-scale farming.)

Wadhwa recognized that similar factors are at work in our own country and worldwide. He called us to begin thinking and planning for a future that will demand creativity and caring.

This story was originally published August 9, 2015 at 2:24 PM with the headline "Arthur Powers: Creativity, caring will be needed."