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January 10, 2022

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taskerdunham

The 1970s futurologists such as Dr Christoper Evans were pomising leisure for all as a result of computerisation, but all it has done is to create bullshit jobs and add new types of bureaucracy. I question whether we could take advantage of such leisure, anyway. Some would take on extra jobs to increase their wealth and status. Others would spend their days in drug induced haze. I fear that most of us haven't been properly educated in how to spend large amounts of leisure time.

Dipper

nearly all work is pointless.

Civilisations have often got to the point when they need only a fraction of the population to grow food and feed people, and hence they have surplus labour. Some societies fight wars, some build pyramids, but ours fills in endless forms which achieve nothing.

rsm

《social democratic politics requires economic activity to finance a big state: valorizing hard work and economic growth are alternatives to demanding massive redistribution.》

Why not use the proven unlimited liquidity of world central bank networks to finance a basic income state, and to eliminate the inflation constraint through full, continuous indexation of incomes to price rises?

k

Who grows your carrots and why should they bother? The bit Marxists always get wrong is that as society reduces its demand on people it requires higher skills for the remaining required work, not lower skills. Therefore substitution becomes less and less of an option.
If you're not working to add to the pot, why should the carrot growers bother working Friday to add to the pot. They grew enough for themselves and their suppliers by Tuesday teatime.
We need the carrot growers to work a full week as productively as possible to create the surplus the rest of us live off, and handing them more worthless shiny tokens isn't going to encourage them to continue. Only capitalists like to count shiny tokens.

ltr

All this contrasts with the Labour party since the 1990s, most of whose leaders – Sir Kier Starmer included – have valorized “hard-working families”....

Ironically, the one leader least prone to use that cliché – Jeremy Corbyn – was the one who more than the others actually won the votes of working people.

[ Brilliantly important observation. ]

Rich

> Some societies fight wars, some build pyramids, but ours fills in endless forms which achieve nothing.

Perhaps this is the true reason for Brexit.

ltr

> Some societies fight wars, some build pyramids, but ours fills in endless forms which achieve nothing.

[ There are ever so many people who work on "my" behalf and I try to remember to be properly, continually grateful. In turn, I appreciate being able to work for others from family to those who have direct need of my work. Working for others is a privilege for me. ]

Jan Wiklund

Since you have mentioned David Graeber's Bullshit jobs elsewhere I understand that this is also a part of the argument. And, by the way, a Norwegian named Christian Vennerød wrote more or less the same book 40 years ago. He thought that something like 10-15 hours paid work per week was what we needed for the essentials if I remember right. Except for the bullshit jobs he also focused on jobs that were needed because we worked too much, like many health and nursing jobs.

Jan Wiklund

But!

Nobody responsible for a state can ever propose to diminish labour. Because the standing and the power of a state is proportional to the paid work done within its jurisdiction (GDP).

With less work done, the power of the state would dwindle. And in a world of competition this would be unthinkable.

ltr

January 11, 2022

Coronavirus

United Kingdom

Cases ( 14,732,594)
Deaths ( 150,609)

Deaths per million ( 2,201)

China

Cases ( 103,968)
Deaths ( 4,636)

Deaths per million ( 3)

[ Imagine the remarkable efforts of NHS staff made on our behalf. I am entirely grateful and respect and admire the work that they all do. Work can and should be deeply valued. ]

rsm

@k: What if the government bought back land from voluntary private sellers and returned it to commons so as to re-establish the Lockean Proviso, allowing me to grow my own food on unowned land? Why only allow violent hunters to self-provision on public land?

Shaun C

Very pleased to see Warhammer getting a mention at my favourite blog!

ltr

It is too easy to see capitalist jobs – with their alienation, unfreedom, burnout and thwarting of our potential – as unavoidable. But in fact they might be, as Mill thought, merely “disagreeable symptoms of one of the phases of industrial progress”.

[ I needed to read this essay through again and more carefully to understand where the writer was pointing. A terrific essay, really valuing socially meaningful work. ]

ltr

January 13, 2022

Coronavirus

United Kingdom

Cases ( 14,967,817)
Deaths ( 151,342)

Deaths per million ( 2,212)

China

Cases ( 104,379)
Deaths ( 4,636)

Deaths per million ( 3)

[ Jeremy Corbyn wanted to strengthen British public health. ]

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