Paid productive work
Technological transition should not push people out of productive activity. ERS proposes keeping them engaged in useful, paid work.
A proposal for the technological transition
Social Return
Enterprises
Technology can make a job obsolete; it should not make the person who performed it obsolete.
ERS proposes redirecting part of the social cost of unemployment towards paid productive work, training and career reinvention.
What is ERS?
A bridge between a job that disappears and a new productive phase.
ERS starts from a simple premise: protecting people does not require artificially preserving every job. It means organizing a productive transition towards new capabilities and opportunities.
Training during working hours
Learning is no longer an additional burden placed on someone who is unemployed. It becomes part of a stable work framework, with dedicated time and support.
Career reinvention
The goal is not to preserve an old job artificially, but to create the conditions for a person to develop a new productive path.
How it works
The ERS model, step by step.
The aim is not to perpetuate jobs that have lost their economic rationale, but to finance an organized productive transition.
01
Technological change reduces or eliminates certain jobs.
02
A portion of the resources currently used to address unemployment is redirected to support an organized productive transition within an ERS structure.
03
The person continues to work, receives pay, and dedicates part of the working day to training and reskilling.
04
The ERS organization carries out activities with social or economic value, without treating conventional financial profitability as the sole criterion.
05
The transition aims to lead to re-employment, entrepreneurship, reskilling or a new productive role.
Why it is needed
The challenge is not only economic.
When technological change pushes people out of the labour market, social consequences also arise that income replacement alone may not fully address.
Because income addresses only part of the problem. Prolonged unemployment can also erode skills, social ties, professional confidence and participation in society.
Background
A proposal for a challenge that is already with us.
ERS arises from observing a challenge that is growing as automation and artificial intelligence transform tasks, professions and production structures.
It does not claim to offer a rigid or universal formula. It proposes a concrete framework that can be analysed, debated and adapted to different economic, social and legal contexts.
Its development requires bringing together economic, labour, business, educational and public-policy perspectives around a central question: how can society harness technological progress without abandoning those displaced during the transition?
The ultimate purpose is to turn a potential source of exclusion and social conflict into a productive transition capable of preserving dignity, opportunity and social peace.
Documents and resources
Explore the proposal in greater depth.
ERS can be explored at different levels of detail. Read the full document, consult the executive summary or listen to a narrated introduction to the proposal.
Full ERS document
The complete proposal: foundations, operating model, financing, implementation and objectives.
Open full documentExecutive summary
A concise overview for institutions, specialists, policymakers, companies and potential collaborators.
Download presentationNarrated introduction
A clear and accessible explanation of ERS to listen to, share, or use as an introduction without reading the full document.
Open executive documentNarrated Foundational Document
Listen to the complete Foundational Document in sequential parts.
Narrated Executive Document
Listen to the Executive Document divided into four parts.
Participate
ERS needs analysis, critical review and collaboration.
The proposal is open to contributions from economists, business leaders, workers, specialists, institutions, governments and citizens interested in finding responses to the social impact of technological transformation.
Its ultimate purpose is to contribute to a technological transition compatible with human dignity, productive activity and social peace.
Examine its foundations, costs, financing mechanisms, incentives and possible consequences.
Study how ERS could be integrated into different economic, social and legal contexts.
Contribute knowledge, experience and proposals that can help develop, refine and make ERS viable.
Contact
Let’s discuss the proposal.
If you would like to ask a question, share an observation, propose a collaboration or explore any aspect of ERS in greater depth, please use this form.