Via Sarah Rios. Opinion piece. Interesting.
Speaking for myself, going back to work after six months (I was laid off at the end of May) has been good for me, and not just economically; it means I have a larger mission in the context of a larger group of people than was the case when I was at home writing novels, and it gets me out of the house and makes me sit at a properly adjusted desk instead of lying on the couch damaging my bad shoulder.
Still, all of those benefits would be achievable without a job, if my economic security was assured, and in part they’re beneficial because the work I’m doing is mentally challenging and obviously useful. If I had to do more routine, less meaningful work in order to simply survive, I would resent it deeply.
Originally shared by Panah Rad
What if jobs are not the solution but the problem?
interesting read
https://aeon.co/essays/what-if-jobs-are-not-the-solution-but-the-problem
It’s not that those benefits wouldn’t have been possible without the job, but rather that society is currently structured in such a way that the only way to gain those benefits is to have had a job and lost it.
In a different society, one where automation is the norm and having a job is strange, there would be no need for benefits like that.
“Economists believe in…”
Three words and there’s already something strange. I have never seen a single economic theory that makes every economist agree with all the others. XD
(yes, I have a degree in economics. Yes, I know that in USA the so called Harvardian School is predominant, and opposing economists have been sunk for decades under suspicion of communism and/or anti-americanism)