Job! Jobs! Jobs! Cheering on our own slavery. Employment bubble popped. Fight against work.

Originally posted by Buddha1098
There are more and more of us everyday. If we use facebook and social media to organize a massive boycott it could be our Arab spring. The Tunisians through off the yoke of a dictator, we have to throw off the yoke of consumerism. The time is now

I think there's a certain irony in you calling for people to use facebook (one of the largest advertisement markets in the world) to 'throw off the yoke of consumerism'.

I see where you're coming from. Who hasn't dreamed of winning the lottery and not having to lift a finger for the rest of their lives? Hell, I dream of it at least once a day despite the fact that I have a job I like! I often think about life, and how I'd like to enjoy most of it doing what I want to do instead of doing what I HAVE to do. Even a task I enjoy doing in my free time becomes a burden when I HAVE to do it in order to survive.

On the other hand if nobody worked and everyone got to do whatever the hell they wanted, who would produce the food and distribute it across the country/world? Who would maintain or produce the machines that help us do so? Who would clean the sewers and maintain piping for running, clean drinking water? Who would build our homes? Who would put in the research and testing for medicine? Who will enforce basic laws? Who will maintain roads or build new ones? Who will teach future generations? Or will we have these people working for us while we lay around doing nothing?

Money may seem like an evil concept, but I actually prefer this form of exchange, because I don't enjoy working night and day farming my own food. I don't know how to build my own house with the comforts I enjoy, I couldn't create a running water faucet if my life depended on it, and I couldn't create my own computer and connect to the internet even if I lived a hundred more years. I work a job I know how to do, and in exchange I get to buy whatever my heart desires, limited only by the amount of my paycheck. My paycheck (in turn) is limited only by my level of ambition, drive, education, certain bureaucratic restrictions, and a bit of good luck.

Your idea might work in a society where robots do absolutely everything (including being self-sustainable without the need for human input), but until that day comes, there's no way for that to ever come to pass.

If you have a theory on how we can get this done, please, by all means share your idea! As long as it makes sense and can be accomplished, I'm in! I'd love to do nothing all day. It's my life-long dream, but I just don't see it happening without needing someone else to do all the hard work for me.

Originally posted by buddhasystem

Originally posted by doobydoll
I am happy living a simple life - and it feels great to be off the treadmill.

Someone is on that treadmill and working their arses off to subsidize your housing, dear

Just you listen here - I have worked MY ARSE off since I left school, DEAR. I lost my job through no fault of my own, I am entitled to unemployment benefit but I don't claim it. Would YOU?? Of course you would.

People like you make me sick, with your higher than mighty attitude to people out of work and trying to live. You're just pissed off because you aren't able to live without cars, holidays, and top-of-the-range rubbish you think you need. You want these things? - then keep running the treadmill to pay for them and stop your whining and whingeing

reply to post by relpobre000


Yes it is Ironic. Much like the US military is one of the largest investors in Solar Energy and has made a solar powered plane.

Facebook is a tool, Unfortunately a lot act like tools on it. The problem isn't facebook the problem is a blindfolded youth that has been taught to value materialism and superficiality over Compassion and intelligence.

reply to post by doctornamtab


What an awesome perspective. I had these exact thoughts for several years, but not ever able to put it into the words you eloquently provided. You are right, most jobs actually do nothing for us, and are provided just to keep the Capitalist system going. There used to be kings in ancient times that would solve job problems by just building stuff, anything, monuments and roads. These would keep people occupied and adding something to the collective value of the kingdom. It was probably a good idea many years ago to do this, but it has outgrown its usefulness.

I see road paving crews consisting of less then 30 people pave hundreds of miles of roads in a few months. This feat was unheard of in years past. Farming like you mentioned is 1% of the workers, shows that if we had 5% farming we might not have any need to work at all. Perhaps, we rotated season by season on the essentials of life. Maybe we work a month out of a year helping build new houses for new families, or harvesting a crop, and everything else is by choice might actually work better.

I do not know if you have read that prediction of the year 2100 (I think by Edgar Casey), but it sounds like America and possibly the world finally realizes we have a stupid system at some point within this century. The system described was one where all basic needs were provided to everyone, and then people volunteered to do other jobs as they deemed fitting for themselves. There was no profit, and voluntary services were provided at no costs to anyone. Imagine that world. I need to live in that world. Where you could take a vacation, anytime you would like. You could indulge in luxuries that are produced by other volunteers as their contribution to society, and those that produce those luxuries enjoy your contribution in which you have volunteered. That a shortage in something causes volunteers to rise to the challenge and fill the need, not for profit, but for enjoyment.

reply to post by ExPostFacto


Yes, and my further ideas about this speculate a system where we have a market still, because markets do wonderful things, but our food and shelter should not be tied to the fluctuations of a market. Food and shelter are too important to be left to the whims of a market. They need to be secured for us by mandate and, most importantly, by the common opinion that we all DESERVE food and shelter regardless of our contribution to society.

So we have a basic standard of living which provides basic shelter and food. Then, we have a market that people can CHOOSE to enter into. If you want that big car, by all means, work a job to get it. But if we want to make art or study books or raise a family we can because we are free FROM the demands of the market economy. But if I want a new guitar or go on vacation I just get a job in the market economy for market prices.

The results are two fold: Economic power shifts completely. The burden is no longer on US to find a job, the burden is on employers to CONVINCE us to work for them. Second, we become a culture of creative people. We're all free to become what we want to be. We're not stuck in our development as human beings. We're free to be who we want to be, all the time, not just the time away from work.

But all must contribute whether its a new scientific theory, a new painting, a new garden, a new sport. We all must contribute to get access to free food and shelter. And there is no judgment about the validity of some contributions. All contributions are equal regardless of the effect they have on society. Anyways, the new creative society is right around the corner. Just gotta wait for this garbage, fake economy to come crashing down. Its doing a pretty good job of that all by itself right now.

reply to post by doctornamtab


I actually am a fan of socializing food, housing, medical care, etc. whatever supports the life essential materials people need to survive. I am also for an market place for profit, such as the one you described. I would imagine that if all life essentials were guaranteed as a right to life, that there would be no need to have a minimum wage. An employer could realistically hire a person for $1 an hour if that is the agreement the two individuals decide upon. Since every bit of profit would be used for non life essential functions then there is no need to regulate wages. Like you said, if you want a bigger nicer car you work for it. Everyone will not want the same things, and true supply and demand of luxury items and services would ensue.

BTW, you are the first person I have heard write my thoughts of the system I think would work to the benefit of all society. Maybe things are really changing. All it takes is a few thousand of us to start thinking this way and the world may change right before our eyes, in an instant.

good post
i agree...most jobs are useless to society..i believe it is made that way..we spend most of our day at work..not with family ( for some that is a blessing ) friends, doing things that help us grow as individuals and to busy to see what is going on around us in this wacky world.

how many 'convenience stores' are needed? how about restaurants? bars? liqour stores? ect ect a 'growing' sector of the economy is in 'service area'. no real skills needed just stand there and be polite. just one example.

i believe this is purposefull..dont want too many people running around without the chain of work around their necks, they might beging to look around them and to start paying attention or taking action. think about, in your own life, how much time, energy and attention goes to your job...what you have to give up on a personal level..what you cant do or wont do because of your job...do you have time to strengthen the body and mind....where does your job stand if the economy continues south...what use is your job to a bigger picture....do you even enjoy your job...

i belive it is a purposefull dumbing down of society..keep the masses too busy to be concernd about the world, learning useless skill sets that only pertain to thier individual jobs and have no real use outside of that job...........

Originally posted by doobydoll
People like you make me sick, with your higher than mighty attitude to people out of work and trying to live. You're just pissed off because you aren't able to live without cars, holidays, and top-of-the-range rubbish you think you need.

You tend to presume an awful lot, dear. Did you see my car, and what it "top-of-the range" stuff in my house? Did you? How do you know my employment history, whether or not I worked on a farm when I was 14, and a bazillion other things that you have no way of knowing?

So go ahead and pat yourself on the back for getting into subsidized housing and enjoying your newly found freedom, while feeling "sick" when looking at people who actually work.

The Book of Job says it all.

Always thank God for protecting you but also thank him for letting satan attack you and thank satan for the challenge and presenting prosecution.


If you can do this... then Heaven will give you a job and you will be more powerful than those that rule the planet now.
They will get mad at you, call you names, insult your intelligence, and your mental stability. Then and only then will you truly own the ones who still think they own you or would also claim they wouldn't have you for all the money and power there is.



.

we would end up like libya, they didn't have to pay for their houses and they didn't have to pay for their education...see what's happening to them now?

An analogy

Say a vast number of unemployed want to be painters. Each paints a few pictures, and posts them to e-bay for fifty cents. (I know, terrible analogy, bear with me)

The trouble is that no one would buy a single painting. Not even other painters. Not even for fifty cents. Everyone wants the big important corporate sponsered painting that TV tells them is the "must-have" item. Unless it comes with programming and conditioning telling the buyer that owning this painting, will make them feel better about themselves, no one will touch it.

So we'd have millions of aspiring painters, with zero sales. But a Da Vinci print will go up in price. And thousands of those will sell. Because the price went up.

Insane?

Yes it is.
And the worst part that I can see is that everyone who has found or suggested a solution has been assasinated or destroyed through litigation.

The most bleeding heart, care-for-everyone-in-the-world, person I ever knew said one day "You know in hunter gatherer societies the average person only worked four hours a day. What we have now is worse. If it wasn't for air conditioning, I would leave the system." He went on to become a Biochemist and a practicing lawyer. Now poised to help Monsanto own our genes.

My conclusion is simple:
The people that control everything are not going to let us have a peaceful world until they can own that too.


David Grouchy

You are all retarded. This is far from a new idea. It's called communism.

It does not work.

I can't even be bothered to go on. You are all proof of how the "dumbing down" is working.

You will separate work from food if you can change one major equation. When the economic reality of scarcity can be turned into everlasting abundance, you can absolutely separate the two and create a sustainable socialist paradise. So if you come up with some brilliant nano-technology that can create every commodity and natural resource to infinity, and if you can come up with other agricultural innovations that supply endless amounts of food; yes you can have that socialist paradise. Until then, we have to live in the real world of scarcity and you have to trade off something productive in order to eat. Generally, the more productive you are, the better you eat, unless you're a banker of course.

Originally posted by CaptChaos
You are all retarded. This is far from a new idea. It's called communism.

It does not work.

I can't even be bothered to go on. You are all proof of how the "dumbing down" is working.

Communism in its purest form has never been achieved.

I believe the idea is to have the means and mode of production completely automated. In essence, you're doing away with human wage labor and letting our technology do all of the work.

How do you institute it? No frackin' clue.

How do you control it, or rather how do you distribute the product? No frackin' clue again. When you give the power of distribution over to a central government/state, you open the door for corruption (happened in the past).

I would say the key idea is to make slaves out of our technology. As of right now, computers and the like do not need rights. Of course, who knows what will happen if we ever develop very smart A.I. (if A.I. takes over in the future and someone reads what I just wrote, I'm going to look like a bigot!)

It certainly doesn't seem possible without exploiting the work of someone. As long as you don't think robots should have rights, then it could be doable.

I don't know really. We could be talking about developing a whole new socioeconomic theory. I'd be up for the challenge...........but I have to waste most of my time at work!!

Originally posted by buddhasystem

Originally posted by doobydoll
People like you make me sick, with your higher than mighty attitude to people out of work and trying to live. You're just pissed off because you aren't able to live without cars, holidays, and top-of-the-range rubbish you think you need.

You tend to presume an awful lot, dear. Did you see my car, and what it "top-of-the range" stuff in my house? Did you? How do you know my employment history, whether or not I worked on a farm when I was 14, and a bazillion other things that you have no way of knowing?

So go ahead and pat yourself on the back for getting into subsidized housing and enjoying your newly found freedom, while feeling "sick" when looking at people who actually work.

Let me tell you something, dear. I don't really give a rat's poont what you may or may not have. No I don't know your employment history, no more than you know mine.

You come across to be under the impression that people who suddenly find themselves unemployed are all scrounging scumbags who should be left to starve with nowhere to live. I have worked all my adult life in various jobs to make a living for me and my kids. My husband died very young, and I was left with 3 small kids to take care of. And I did just that, to the best of my ability. What took a lifetime to earn - my home, my savings, was all took away from me in 6 months once I lost my job. The evidence of a lifetime of work, ALL gone in just 6 months.

And you think I should be kicked onto the street and left to starve after I have worked all my life, just because I lost my job a few months ago? What a foul, ugly soul you are.

It isn't people who work who make me sick - it's people like you, who condemn and look down their self-righteous, bigoted noses at others who are in unfortunate circumstances.

I never thought in a million years that I would ever be in this situation, but here I am, and not by choice. So don't don't get too confident and think it can't happen to you - it can, and it might. Then you yourself will be included amongst the idle, scrounging scumbags you like to condemn.

we are all slaves to the system,and always have been..this vid sums it up nicely...enjoy

peace

We don´t need jobs. We need activities in which each one can show our talents (and everyone has one), just imagine everyone doing what´s their do best. But the exchange of labor for food and shelter is nothing more than slavery. This is really our best effort after thousands of years upon earth?? shame on us!! This is not the way i wanted to live... working on disgusting labours all week long?? no way!! Please someone take me out of here!!

Love it!

Please make the bad people stop hurting me!!!

We are next to being labeled robots, if this slavery of a system is not changed for the better.

I really need more time with my family and of course here on ATS , but I can't because apparently money doesn't fall from the trees...

But the current system is falling anyways, for the backbone (the house of cards) is unstable.