Jeremy Rifkin Biography Quotes 33 Report mistakes

Early Life and Education
Jeremy Rifkin was born in 1945 in the United States and became known as an American economic and social theorist, writer, and public policy advisor. He studied economics at the University of Pennsylvania and was drawn early to questions about how technology, markets, and social change intersect. During the 1960s he took part in the era's civic ferment, engaging in antiwar and civil society activism that shaped his conviction that economic systems must be evaluated not only by efficiency and profit, but by their social and ecological consequences.

Activism and the Foundation on Economic Trends
In the late 1970s he founded the Foundation on Economic Trends (FOET), based in Washington, D.C., to examine emerging technologies and their impacts on labor, the environment, and democratic institutions. Under his leadership, FOET became a hub for public campaigns on biotechnology, energy, and environmental risk. Rifkin worked with colleagues including Ted Howard and public interest advocate Andrew Kimbrell to press for stricter oversight of genetic engineering, challenge the patenting of living organisms, and scrutinize the introduction of new biotechnologies into agriculture and medicine. These efforts, while controversial, put questions of ecological risk, ethics, and public consent on the policy agenda in the United States and abroad.

Books and Intellectual Themes
Rifkin's books broadened his reach well beyond activist circles. Early works such as Who Should Play God? (coauthored with Ted Howard) and Algeny argued that genetic technologies raised profound cultural and ecological issues. Entropy: A New World View (also with Ted Howard) brought thermodynamic metaphors into social thought, suggesting that industrial civilization's resource and energy use would collide with ecological limits. Later works, including Time Wars, The End of Work, The Age of Access, The Hydrogen Economy, and The European Dream, explored how digitalization, networks, and shifting energy regimes would transform employment, consumer culture, geopolitics, and the social contract. The Empathic Civilization and The Third Industrial Revolution framed a long-run transition toward distributed renewables, digital communications, and smart logistics, while The Zero Marginal Cost Society and his subsequent writings examined how collaborative commons and near-zero marginal costs could reconfigure markets and governance.

Policy Advisor in Europe and Beyond
Rifkin's concepts moved from page to practice through advisory roles. He advised successive presidents of the European Commission, including Romano Prodi and Jose Manuel Barroso, participated in dialogues with the leadership of the European Parliament, and worked with national and regional governments on industrial transformation strategies. In Germany, his ideas circulated widely among energy and climate policymakers during the period when Chancellor Angela Merkel's government accelerated the Energiewende. In France, he collaborated closely with Daniel Percheron in Nord-Pas de Calais to draft a regional roadmap inspired by the Third Industrial Revolution framework. In Luxembourg, he worked with Prime Minister Xavier Bettel and Deputy Prime Minister Etienne Schneider to craft a national strategy linking digitization to a renewable energy transition. His analyses also reached policymakers in China, where themes from his Third Industrial Revolution writings informed conversation around the Internet Plus initiative advanced by Premier Li Keqiang.

TIR Consulting Group and Implementation Projects
To support practical implementation, Rifkin established TIR Consulting Group, a network that worked with cities, regions, and companies on master plans for smart infrastructure: digital communications, renewable power, energy-efficient buildings, and electric mobility coordinated through the Internet of Things. These projects aimed to knit together power grids, transport systems, and logistics platforms to reduce carbon emissions and foster new economic ecosystems. He often coordinated multi-stakeholder processes that included utility executives, labor representatives, mayors, regional presidents, and university researchers, seeking consensus around phased investment and regulatory reform.

Teaching and Public Engagement
For many years Rifkin served as a senior lecturer in the Executive Education program at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he taught business and public-sector leaders about technological disruption, energy systems, and long-term strategy. He has been a frequent keynote speaker at international forums and a contributor to media debates on climate policy, automation, the future of work, and global inequality. His capacity to translate complex technological shifts into accessible narratives made him a sought-after presenter for cabinets, corporate boards, and civil society coalitions.

Debates and Critique
Rifkin's arguments have always drawn responses across the spectrum. Supporters credit him with anticipating how digital networks, distributed energy, and climate imperatives would reshape economies. Critics have challenged aspects of his analyses, particularly in the biotechnology debates and in his use of scientific analogies. Stephen Jay Gould, for example, wrote a prominent critique of Algeny, questioning its interpretation of evolutionary theory. Rifkin's forecasts regarding employment, markets, and energy have also sparked debate among economists and technologists. He has generally welcomed public scrutiny as part of the democratic process around major technological choices.

Legacy and Continuing Influence
Across decades, Rifkin has sustained a distinctive role as a bridge between academic research, policy experimentation, and public discussion. The recurring figures around his work span collaborators like Ted Howard and Andrew Kimbrell, European policymakers such as Romano Prodi, Jose Manuel Barroso, Angela Merkel, Daniel Percheron, Xavier Bettel, and Etienne Schneider, and global leaders including Li Keqiang who engaged with his ideas in national strategies. Through FOET and TIR Consulting Group, Rifkin pressed institutions to connect climate science with industrial policy, and to align infrastructure investment with social equity. His vision of a third industrial revolution built on renewables, digital networks, and collaborative commons remains influential in debates over how to decarbonize, modernize infrastructure, and distribute the gains of technological change.

Our collection contains 33 quotes who is written by Jeremy, under the main topics: Ethics & Morality - Justice - Nature - Free Will & Fate - Equality.