Paid employment

My mind sometimes rambles through imaginary conversations (it is one way I can explore differing perspectives on a topic - although poetry is still my favourite method for doing that, and I am hoping to do [read: unleash on an unsuspecting world still quivering in dread from my lost almost Vogon-like attempts] more poetry as I progress further into my retirement and recover more from work). Sometimes those conversations merit being turned into posts (although I don’t present them as conversations, entertaining as that may be ... I’ll leave that to the classics like Plato). 

This is one of those posts, and is on the nature of work in the form of paid employment. (The preliminary conversation was about accountability for leaders, and may make it’s way into a post yet.)

Now, in my opinion, the purposes of paid employment are: 

(1) to enable survival;

(2) in modern society, to enable quality of life beyond survival; and 

(3) to enable an actually constructive contribution to society - which may not be what the powerful  elites of any society consider constructive, on the false and utterly meaningless premise that it is convenient to their comfort ...

Now, unfortunately, purpose (1) is not being met in too many cases. 

Globally, too many people are living in poverty, or in war, or as refugees/displaced people, or without access to adequate food/water/health care/etc. 

In the wealthier nations where most of my audience is located, issues such as not being able to afford homes, health care, etc are also an issue. 

In fact, I have long considered that the stress levels we live under are worsse than those that a gatherer-hunter would experience. I tried to explain that to someone back in the 80s, and they were so FBU that they couldn’t bend their mind enough to even try to understand the concept.

Developing that further, I consider purpose (2) is similarly not being met.

Apart from the issues I outlined in my comment on purpose (1), if people are being left - as many are - without time and/or energy for things that make life worth living, such as adequate quality and quantity of time for a healthy, fulfilling family/personal life, then paid employment is FAILING to ensure quality of life beyond survival. 

Some people choose to build their self worth around their work, and they may have valid reason for doing so - e.g., people doing life saving research, or their decision may be questionable - e.g., if they are dedicated to making bigger, worse (more powerful) weapons, or they are delaying taking the action that is required to address the climate crisis.

Such people’s needs can still be met by jobs that enable those people to also have an adequate quality and quantity of time for a healthy, fulfilling family/personal life.

Purpose (3) is also not being met - and this is where the form of capitalism we have had foisted on us by the rich and powerful and their willing sock puppets is a problem - specifically, many people are coerced into jobs that don’t suit their talents but fit the demands of oligarchs for economic puppet cogs ... 

Of course, doing work we are not suited to - this is not about like or dislike - may be necessary at times of catastrophe, but ... the main catastrophe the world is now facing is the climate crisis: forcing people into jobs in high emissions industries is actively harming our survival. 

There is an excellent critique of the flawed thinking that is attributed to the so-called “protestant work ethic” in the video linked to be below, which is worth viewing in its own right but is particularly relevant to this post: 

“Should Disabled People Be Forced To Work?”   https://youtu.be/hpb_1aYtGds?si=RvNBVz1qjDPpoVrP  

(The video was in response to right wing [destroy-the-world-through-economic-growth] rubbish about “doing duty”, and the arguments include all people have a valid existence, expectations to do work that one cannot do are harmful reality-denying fantasies [my wording], the problem of scepticism of the uninformed [especially regarding non-apparent disabilities], the threats to cut off money are to life, unsuitable workplaces, and the damaging [including guilt-tripping] and abuse-inciting “fraud” narrative and false claims.)

On top of all those points, when the mental health consequences of under-/unemployment (increased risk of suicide, the mental health trauma caused by bloody-minded bureaucrats, and stuff ups such as RoboDebt) are taken into account, our approach to paid employment is failing to meet all three purposes and is actively causing harm - in fact, I consider we now have a modern version of mediaeval serfdom ... 

So ... what to do about all this? 

Well, things like the work from home movement are, in effect, building on those who have been opting out of the rat race in a movement noticeable since the 1960s but dating back further than that, and that sort of repositioning of common sense and decency ahead of the oligarchs’ profit and power targets is crucial. 

More, better analysis by journalism would also help (there is some good analysis: we need more of it), as would voters having a better grasp of the implications of policies (especially conservative policies) and not thinking they can become rich. 

In fact, that ultimately is the best way to improve the current situation: refuse to buy in to it, and accept the price of that. We will probably not see the benefit of that, but future generations will.

Assumptions / basis 

In writing this, I have assumed / started from the following: 

• this blog states quite clearly that it is about political and human rights matters, including lived experience of problems, and thus I will assume readers are reasonable people who have noted the content warning in the post header;

Possible flaws 

Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider:

• there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan  Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”; 
  
• I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.
  

 

If they are of any use of interest, the activism information links from my former news posts are available in this post. 

 

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Remember: we need to be more human being rather than human doing, and all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering”.

Copyright © Kayleen White 2016-2024     NO AI   I do not consent to any machine learning aka Artificial Intelligence (AI), generative AI, large language model, machine learning, chatbot, or other automated analysis, generative process, or replication program to reproduce, mimic, remix, summarise, or otherwise  replicate any part of this post or other posts on this blog via any means. Typo’s may be inserrted deliberately to demonstrate this is not an AI product.     Otherwise, fair and reasonable use is accepted under Creative Commons 4.0 on an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike basis   https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/