Are Autistic people on verge of a 21st century catastrophe?

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This is a question I am beginning to wonder about and is starting to trouble me quite a bit. That being are autistic people on the verge of seeing their lives dramatically changing for the worse due to technological and social changes?

Something tells me this is the case. So let's get the picture straight. It is estimated that around 20 to 50% of autistic people are low to high functioning. And have massive cognitive impairments. This makes getting work already harder for these individuals. And I think it may get allot worse in the future. It is estimated by my Prime Minister Jacinda that within 20 years 50% of the jobs we know today will be gone, and with that I am worried that autistic people will be left behind due to this transition.

The deal is the majority of jobs these individuals hold are unskilled for a variety of reasons, which are widely estimated to be the first to go. What will happen after that?

Thing is I don't see autistic people as being able to adapt. Many of these individuals have been left behind for so many years with low self esteem, and little faith and their abilities, and many that don't have that have cognitive impairments that will make gaining many jobs nigh on impossible.

Is this a legitimate fear. It is starting to worry me.

Actually at the moment we have jobs that are very focused on 'team effort' which is VERY unfriendly to Aspies.
However in the future I see things moving to individual roles for highly skilled individuals which will favour Aspies.

I felt this way about 'wider society' for years

I did read somewhere that the emergence of big industrial cities and consumer capitalism has made life harder for people on the spectrum. Countries that offer good social welfare seem to be able to help autistic people intergrate or assimilate into society easier, even if they don't do so in a traditional way.

From what I've read on WP and other AS women's stories, the ones that tend to thrive were diagnosed at an early age, given some form of emotional security from their families, lived in fairly quiet or countryside environmemts, given educational support and encouraged in any strength that was displayed.

I think the individualism that is championed in the modern world has also affected families and how parents treat their children.

Just about every trend on earth is headed for a crisis, so of course that will affect us too. All charities and social programs are being starved by the billionaires. What worries me is not AS per se, but the quality of education now, and the lack of real-world skills. I have been trying to find an apprentice/heir without success, despite considerable evidence that it would be broadly useful in novel circumstances. After a crisis, those of us with ingenuity might thrive by fixing junk, if we had learned more than video games. I once did a $10 repair that saved $1,000 for the customer. It costs me under $200 pa for parts and depriciation to keep a reliable, economical car on the road.

Sounds like my job. Maybe it's just the area we live in, but most of the temp workers we get lie about having skills they don't actually have, they can't even do math with a calculator, and they do not possess a single ounce of common sense.

I also discovered that a lot of males intentionally avoid having jobs, because almost their entire check goes straight into child support.

Exactly! Don't discount the one phenomenon that can be counted on: the Black Market. This market doesn't just sell things to its customers, it relies on willing people to provide the desired goods and services (think M*A*S*H's Cpl. "Radar" O'Reilly and Cpl. Maxwell Klinger).

So, find a skill or 10 that people will need in real life, not just when the doomsday prophets of government fall backwards into their predictions. Humans will always need others who can provide them food, shelter, security, transportation and distraction.

Preppers understand this phenomenon well. At the very least, stockpile cheap liquor (but, don't drink your profits).

The trouble is that, for the most part, government predictions are notoriously short-sighted. They never, ever, understand how people will seldom comply as much as they are expected to do. If the world's economies and jobs go away, watch for farmers and laborers to become to new rich, while "celebrities" get nickles for their clothes and awards. Besides, it is good to barter with others. And, it doesn't involve "swiping" an RFID card.

I think this is a legitimate fear, but for somewhat different reasons. With increased automation, it would seem that jobs in the future will largely emphasize empathy that a machine can't provide. I can even remember seeing an article about this in a popular publication; although in that article, such a trend was seen as a "positive".

Even with computer programming, modern management trends seem to want to do away with the stereotype of the programmer who sits all day in a cubicle, interacting with a computer and communicating with others via chat, in favor of a model ("extreme programming" being one example) in which a large part of the day is spent in face-to-face interaction with other team members, and even coding is preferably accomplished by two people sitting side-by-side and cooperating.

OTOH there has been some publicity given to corporations that intentionally seek out autistic individuals (Microsoft being a major example, interesting that it's Microsoft rather than Apple) for jobs at which they believe autists will excel, on the basis of skills such as pattern recognition. Knowing that these people can be overlooked due to making a poor impression during interviews. So you never really know what fears will come true.