New middle class as a leveling factor of social uncertainty in the conditions of modernization challenges of Industry

Анотація

The article deals with the impact of the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) on the situation of the middle class in different countries. It is established that the obvious consequence of the fourth industrial revolution is the polarization of various segments of the population incomes and the gradual reduction of the number of the middle class in both developed and developing countries. It is proved that in the structure of the modern middle class there is an intellectual and material stratification, because a huge share of income is concentrated in the areas of high-tech industries, programming and IT industry. Instead, the traditional middle class (office and bank clerks, teachers, university professors, medical staff, government and transport workers, and others) is increasingly falling to lower middle or poor incomes under the influence of labor market oversaturation and the threat of unemployment.

The leveling of the processes of reducing the number of middle class representatives should be based on a purposeful state policy on income growth in those professions where robotics and automation will preserve jobs for people in the future. This social practice should involve co-opting into the new middle class not only people working in computer programming, the IT industry, research, but also skilled workers in the service sector, education and medical workers, culture and the media etc. In the Ukrainian reality, the purposeful formation of a new middle class is one of the key factors in leveling social and economic instability and the threat of social unrest, overcoming the economic and social backwardness of our state. It was stated in the study that in Ukraine there are both favorable factors (high enough educational level of its citizens, the presence of millions of Ukrainian migrant workers who have experience in developed countries and show the ability to take an active life position) and unfavorable factors (lack of effective, educated , patriotic leading political class and political will in public authorities in the field of overcoming corruption and merging state power with oligarchic structures) to form a new middle class.