Special Report: The Latin American middle class (ISSN 17414474)

The attempt to bring a greater part of the Latin American population into the tax and social security system faces a major additional complication: the advent of a global digital revolution, sometimes called the ‘fourth industrial revolution’. This is the headline used to describe a range of technology developments including increased automation, the use of industrial robots, the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, artificial intelligence, blockchain software, and 3D printing, among others. At a global level the effects of this revolution on traditional patterns of work and employment could be far-reaching; they are not yet fully understood. According to the IDB, existing global estimates say the share of jobs that could be replaced by robots ranges from 5% to 47%, depending on the method of calculation used.[1] Against this it is estimated that each new technology job can generate 4.9 other jobs as part of a ‘spillover effect’. The threat of job losses through technology varies from country to country and sector to sector.