THE DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES; A COUNTRY’S ASSET, A CORPORATION’S LIABILITY, THE FALLACY OF EQUALITY, AND THE FUTURE

seon sawkins

Abstract


This paper will discuss three issues regarding the development of human resources, using Australia and The United States of America (USA) as case examples. The first issue is that corporations and governments have incompatible views of humans as a resource. A corporation views its employees as potential and/or current liabilities and will often employ the least amount of people, at the lowest pay rate as possible. Incongruently, a government (theoretically) views its citizens as potential assets who, when working, could be taxable (plus other contributions to society). Thus, governments have attempted to create equal employment opportunities through educational outcomes. However, despite policies ensuring “No Child [is] Left Behind” inequality keeps rising. Thus, the second issue discussed in this paper is “equality” as a fallacy; in addition to the subconscious biases affecting a person’s chance of employment, there are people with physical disabilities, or those who simply do not have the intellectual prowess to compete with the brightest kids in school. The continued pretence that every citizen has equal employment opportunities has in fact “left people behind”. Which brings us to the third issue – the future; if people are already being left behind, how will the predicted automation take-over affect society? Can society transition in time? Governments need to start envisioning the future and implement appropriate policies as soon as possible. Of course, “Rome was not built in a day”. Still, Rome burnt down in less than a week; let’s hope the current world leaders are nothing like Nero.

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References


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