What might a world without work look like?
As ideas of employment become more obscure and desperate, 2013 is the perfect time to ask what it means to live without it
As ideas of employment become more obscure and desperate, 2013 is the perfect time to ask what it means to live without it
… In their research, the authors discovered that people who found the most meaning in their work were also experiencing fulfillment in each of the four quadrants in their lives. This means that “happy” people at work are individuals with fulfilling lives. This is where work and life meet in a holistic dance. The idea of separating work and personal life is an illusion. We cannot have a meaningful work life if we are not fulfilled in the totally of our existence. …
… Despite Walmart’s insistence that employees are paid fairly, low compensation ranks high among striking workers’ grievances. In a conference call organized last week by the campaign Making Change at Walmart, several employees of the company complained of poverty-level wages.
“I struggle to support my family on $14,000 a year,” said Sara Gilbert, a customer service manager at the company for three years. “My children are in state housing and we get subsidized housing and food stamps.”
Economist Julianne Malveaux said, “[Walmart] employees earn around $8 an hour. This is not a living wage, this is not a working wage, and especially not a living wage when they’re not working 30 hours a week, which would allow them to get health insurance.” …
… In our current economic setup, which is an evolutionary, not revolutionary, development from 250 years ago, when the Industrial Revolution got started, yes, jobs are important. But that’s like saying that puke-inducing chemotherapy is important when you’ve got cancer.
Uh, yeah. But better not to get cancer in the first place, right?
In a healthy human community, jobs are neither necessary nor desirable. Productive work is necessary – for economic, social, and even spiritual reasons. Free markets are also an amazing thing, almost magical in their ability to satisfy billions of diverse needs. Entrepreneurship? Great! But jobs – going off on a fixed schedule to perform fixed functions for somebody else day after day at a wage – aren’t good for body, soul, family, or society. …
