ABSTRACT
Quite a few authors have speculated about the "future of work". They draw conclusions that everyone will become an independent contractor rather than an employee to the idea that machines will do most of the work and people will just deal with a small number of activities such as providing personalized services and programming machines. With the growth of networks of companies and workers providing specific services in the value chain, we may expect to see the number of independent contractors increase. The part-time versus full-time label is thus complicated by both the legal issue of fringe benefits associated with full-time status of an employee and the perception issue of people working less than the full workweek being seen as either less valuable or less committed. Mechanized agriculture has changed the face of farming in all but the most isolated and intractable communities in all countries and has resulted in far fewer farmers than in previous generations.
