this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2023
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Antiwork
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We're trying to reduce the numbers of hours a person has to work.
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We talk about the end of paid work being mandatory for survival.
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The logical conclusion of
is that
A lot of people don't think about the implications of that statement when they make it, but that is the logical end point. My experience is that most people - at least if they aren't stressed from the existing model - absolutely want to do things, often sharing them for free, without coercion.
But even if not, do you think people should be miserable and die if they can't or even won't "work for a living" (for a very particular narrow definition of work that can gain you money under the current system, when stuff created and donated is often more valuable than things payed for due to lack of perverse incentives - e.g. FOSS ^.^).
I'm not even starting on how the current model of labour provides perverse anti-automation incentives. Automation should be liberating, but the way our society values people based on labour (e.g. Protestant Work Ethic) actively forces people (and the non-capitalist class as a whole) to avoid tools or processes that should improve our collective lives :/ - imo this is one of the most fucked up things about capitalism.
And who is working to build that automation, who is working to integrate that automation? Who is building the mechanic stuff, the electric stuff the robots and linear tranfer axes, the PlCs and the sensors?
You know you can get people to do this without threatening them with starvation and homelessness right?
I asked sapient_cogbag who would do the automation work he likes to be implemented? Because someone has to get up in the morning and actually do that work, it doesn't grow on it's own.
And you're asking me about threats of starvation and homelessness ... I don't get it ...
Then you missed the whole point.
*they
The current way we coerce (by threatening starvation and homelessness) is not the only way to make people do things. I agree that free everything forever with sprinkles is probably not going to work or allow us to maintain our current quality of life (I too like pop-tarts medicine, and computers). It's not a binary. There are options in between that can be used to motivate people to do even unpleasant things.
I think we coerce way to much and I think a lot of coercion that we do benefits only a few people and not the many.
Who coerced you by threats?
No one in particular. But I am coerced into working as are you.
I'm not coerced, I choose to. I could very well live off the land. The only difference would be the life standard and what I can afford, but hey smartphones, internet and restaurants are a first world luxuries not real life needs.
Oh my bad. I did realize you're one of the 12ish people that can do that. Can you imagine not having that ability and sympathize with people who don't have that ability? If not, we don't really have any common ground to stand on.
I thought of another good argument so I'm posting it here.
Saying that I can stop working anytime and eat dirt is not really selling me on your ideas.
And I'm not trying to sell to you anything. I never said you can stop working. I never said you can eat dirt.
You can stop working only if someone else has already worked for you accumulating value so you can consume now. Even a big business if going forward only through work. The work of you or of your forefathers that you consume now but someone, sometime had to work.
Okay I'm confused. I thought we were talking about corrosion. What does your reply have to do with corrosion?
I never said anything about stopping work. But I do think if humanity can produce enough, we should work less relative to how much we can produce.