IN the current highly globalised society, man’s social and economic needs have increased.
Values and preferences of individuals and societies have become dynamic in this new globalised society.
Human’s desire for things depends on his knowledge of the material things available on the market. This is why we see a very big difference between urban and rural societies concerning human needs.
The urban society has a complex desire for material needs than the rural society. This is because of the new products on the market which the urban society is exposed to every day, and has led to the dynamics of values and preferences of society.
However, despite a constant change and increase in human needs, no new ways of meeting these needs have been discovered by the society.
Technology is advancing each and every day, but only few selected societies have responded well in putting it to use for meeting their needs.
Looking at the increase of population and the constant decreasing of natural resources, scientists and economists have worked together to find new effective and efficient ways of meeting human needs.
This has led to the introduction of technologies in all activities and sectors of the economy. The introduced technology is meant to be used by all players in the economy. This includes companies, organisations, governments and individuals to meet human demands.
The main ideal of technology was to increase man’s ability of development initiatives and to enhance his playing ground in the economy.
However, in many societies of our country, technology has little impact on enhancing people’s initiatives and ideals of economic development.
The Zambian society has abundant human resources. The country’s population is full of youths who can contribute greatly to the development of the nation.
The country has still remained underdeveloped largely because of our attitude towards development.
The poverty and lack of development in our country has been as a result of over-dependency on formal employment.
Anyone who is not employed by the government, companies or other organisations is not considered to be of economic value to society and is not expected to contribute to the country’s economic development.
Everyone in the Zambian society, whether a youth or old, educated or uneducated, wants to be employed by the Government, a private company or organisation.
In short, everyone wants to work for someone in our society and it is amazing how members of society find comfort in working for someone instead of working for themselves.
In modern-day Zambia, a lot of youths are educated in different fields but their contribution to national development has not been felt.
Even people with skills in fields like construction, engineering, and business can only be productive in our society only when they are employed. We have formed what we call a formal employment-oriented society.
This formal employment-oriented society has even led to a situation where old people cling to jobs; they take their children to school but they cannot leave jobs for them; they talk about youths engaging into self-employment but they have failed to lead by example.
And not only that, they have also failed to empower the youths by failing to provide them with capital. Instead, they take their children to school and push them to find employment instead of empowering them for investment.
As more people look for formal employment, fewer opportunities will be available. There is no one to create employment as everyone has become a job hunter.
This has left our society with only the Government as a source of employment as there are fewer chances for one to get absorbed into the private sector.
Our society has failed to realise that the private sector has a role to play in providing employment, and that it is the members of the community who form the private sector. Our society believes that the private sector has to be formed by foreign investors who have dominated the construction industry and shopping centres.
The Government has provided a lot of education centres at all levels to empower citizens in developmental skills.
In addition to this, the government has further provided sponsorship to those who are unable to access these learning institutions due to financial challenges.
However, it is a pity that we expect the Government to provide learning centres, sponsor our children and at the end even provide employment.
The main problem with our society is that no one wants to do dirty jobs considered as low class, such as farming.
Everyone in society wants to become rich in a short period of time without labouring first. It is sad in our society that even a person who has nothing and is doing nothing still has courage to look down on a cameraman or a farmer who is able to support his family and live happily.
Some people have failed to see the goodness in self-employment. They have failed to realise that self-employment is much better than working for someone.
There are more advantages in self- employment than in formal employment or working for someone.
Firstly, in self-employment you are your own boss. This means you do not report to anyone or follow rules formed by anyone. This gives you an opportunity to control your work schedule and programmes.
Secondly, you can make more money by working for yourself than working for someone. In Self-employment you can determine and choose how much you want to make per month. This can give you the opportunity to increase your monthly salaries every month as long as you are making more profits.
We have seen farmers, marketeers and cameraman making more money than people in formal employment.
Thirdly, you can become a boss by employing someone. Instead of you calling someone a boss and bowing down to someone’s rules every day, you have an opportunity to be called a boss and become a manager in your own office.
Lastly, in self-employment you can improve your skills and ideals as you have the power to exercise and implement your skills and ideals in the development process.
Therefore, it is time for Zambians to contribute to national development by becoming self-reliant. We should stop focusing on looking for formal employment all the time but on creating employment for ourselves and others.
When people start going to school with the aim of becoming employers one day, then we will see the end of this formal employment-oriented society and formation of a new society where finding someone to employ will be hard as everyone will be an employer.