consumption is changing as is the meaning we attach to both sides of the equation in a digital world production becomes simpler and consumption more complex and layered how to consume what to consume what new meanings to attach to consumption these are the new civilisational questions of the day identity descriptors too are moving from what we do to earn a living our occupations to what we spend our time and money on our interests newer professions are working to sharpen the pursuit of consumption whether it is data scientists looking to map the implicit preferences of every individual or curators helping other consumers refine their acts of consumption the direction is unmistakable becoming expert consumers could well be the next frontier of work like in the case of production consumption needs its own specialists the two currencies of our age are time and money and learning how to spend both better is becoming an increasingly more significant pursuit we have already started filling up time more deliberately work takes time and a lot of the work we do today is to help others directly consume time entertainment sport shopping surfing the internet using social media these are all ways of consuming time the more we are able to place value on ideas rather than things representations rather than reality the closer we get to a world where our primary preoccupation is consumption buying things has a limit even if it may not feel like that but buying ideas or symbols is potentially limitless along with this shift in emphasis come the possibility of new ways of imagining how we make money the origins of the idea of the universal basic income may lie in the need for a form of a guaranteed social safety net but it in effect lays the ground for an economy where we are paid to consume conceptually it is a device that provides a certain minimum standing as consumers could we inhabit a world tomorrow where we are paid according to our ability to consume and to aid consumption could we get paid simply to provide data about ourselves in an economic system perpetually hungry for consumer demand jobs are arguably plausible excuses to give people money to spend things on and with time we will dream up new excuses the future of jobs may look very different from what todays reality looks like newer jobs will emerge activities that currently do not assume the form of professions will become legitimate career options the threat that automation poses to employment however is a real and pressing one the changes being spoken of will take much longer to unfold but in the long run the idea of jobs is fluid enough to take on new forms in line with newer contexts jobs are cultural inventions and we will invent new occupations what kind of world would this translate into and how desirable it would be is another question altogether