Alibaba’s Jack Ma Sees “Decades Of Pain Ahead” Thanks To Internet Disruption

‘Adapt or die miserable’ appears to be the message from Chinese billionaire Jack Ma.

The Alibaba founder warned that people should prepare for decades of social upheaval and pain as the internet disrupts the global economy.

“In the next 30 years, the world’s pain will be much greater than its happiness,” Ma said at an entrepreneurial conference in Zhengzhou, China. “Social conflicts over the next 30 years will hugely impact every industry.”

As RT reports, Ma says the world must radically change the way people are taught and establish how to work with robots to help soften the blow caused by automation and the internet economy.

“Machines should only do what humans cannot,” Ma said, adding “only in this way can we have the opportunities to keep machines as working partners with humans, rather than as replacements.”

The founder of the e-trading platform Alibaba said he had tried to warn people in the early days of e-commerce it would disrupt traditional retailers but few listened. This time he wants to caution against the impact of new technologies, so no one will be surprised.

“Fifteen years ago I gave speeches 200 or 300 times reminding everyone the internet will impact all industries, but people didn’t listen because I was nobody,” he said.

Ironic then that the world appears set on dismissing the UBI/Welfare-supporting leftist/socialist movements (see USA, Holland, and now France) when, if Ma is right, we’re all going to need ‘assistance’.