"Our goal as a civilization should be full unemployment, not full employment."

[yallerdawg]

Foundations of Universal Basic Income

Link to tweet

John Bentley on Philorum: http://www.philorum.org/speech/20051207JohnBentley.html#heading28

Scott Santens: https://twitter.com/scottsantens

Firstly, there is the retort that work is desirable as an end. That is, work is good in and of itself.

Too often people say: "I think I'd be bored if I didn't have to work." It's disturbing that a persons' sense of possibility has atrophied to such an extent. It's as if they can only see a choice between working and doing nothing.

They probably will be bored if they can't imagine having such things in their life as sports, travel, art, music - a whole train of activity that is desirable as an end.

Perhaps they simply can't act unless under forced instruction. If that's the case, we don't need work for that. We can build a web site: www.yourdailytask.com.

Today you take a big inflatable ball to the park. Roll it up the hill, when you get to the top of the hill release it, let it roll back to the bottom.

Those that are free of work might even volunteer to monitor those who require forced instruction for their satisfaction. They could offer harsh words, for example.

This view that work is good in itself another has called "Work Fetishism."

[dameatball]

1. I'm doing my part!!

[yallerdawg]

2. Attributed to Paul Newman:

No one was ever heard on their death bed to say, "Gee, I wish I could have worked more."

[guillaumeb]

3. People need something to do, and there is much work that needs to be done.

Terms and conditions of employment are another matter.

[yallerdawg]

4. You must be from "management."

[guillaumeb]

5. I was a union representative for 32 years.

I did manage to keep my sanity.

[yallerdawg]

6. You would be well aware of what happened to jobs and "work" over the past 40 years.

There is no dignity in subsistence and slave wages. Four decades of manual labor in America leaves many of us infirm and broken by the time we get to 60.

We have Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and not much else.

But I'm not talking about what didn't work for the vast majority of Americans in the past. That's gone. Sure, some people grabbed the brass ring of life. But most lived our "quiet lives of desperation," making it from one day to the next feeling lucky we did that.

I want to talk about the world our children and grandchildren are going to live in.

[guillaumeb]

7. Agreed.