5 ms·

The Abolition of Work (1985)

40 points by iamcurious 11y ago

_nato_ 11y ago
Keynes also drew some similar conclusions. Link to a PDF of his essay from 1930 on the matter is here: http://www.aspeninstitute.org/sites/default/files/content/upload/Intro_Session1.pdf http://www.aspeninstitute.org/sites/default/files/content/up...
beamatronic 11y ago
Who reads this much text anymore? Seriously, it's a wall of text.
- nullc 11y ago
  I thought it was an enjoyable read. It didn't take very long.
- vvpan 11y ago
  Don't work omg lol.
- reustle 11y ago
  I dictate articles when they get to this size
dollar 11y ago
One bright day in late autumn a family of Ants were bustling about in the warm sunshine, drying out the grain they had stored up during the summer, when a starving Grasshopper, his fiddle under his arm, came up and humbly begged for a bite to eat. "What!" cried the Ants in surprise, "haven't you stored anything away for the winter? What in the world were you doing all last summer?" "I didn't have time to store up any food," whined the Grasshopper; "I was so busy making music that before I knew it the summer was gone." The Ants shrugged their shoulders in disgust. "Making music, were you?" they cried. "Very well; now dance!" And they turned their backs on the Grasshopper and went on with their work. There's a time for work and a time for play.
- mitchtbaum 11y ago
  (Original) Aesop's Fables - The Ant and the Grasshopper [~600 BCE] https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Ants_and_the_Grasshopper https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Ants_and_the_Grasshopper (^^Fork) Aesop's Fables: Illustrated and Adapted for Children [1919] (translator not identified) http://mythfolklore.net/aesopica/milowinter/32.htm http://mythfolklore.net/aesopica/milowinter/32.htm ----- Interesting adaptation..
- Retra 11y ago
  Yet the grasshopper will steal the ants' food, and because he is much bigger than them, he will be happy and well-fed. And the ants will be food machines with no purpose for being except to fulfill the grasshopper's desires.
- herbig 11y ago
  That's cute of you, but the point of the essay is that we're not working for food anymore. We're working to sustain the system of work and to buy iPhones.
- n007 11y ago
  You missed the point. His concept of work is "voluntary work" (or play) that which you are not forced by another human to do.
OJFord 11y ago
In such a world, one stands to gain so much by being willing to work. And thus, the 'modern' world is born.
dang 11y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9844042 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9844042
ZenoArrow 11y ago
Call me crazy if you like, but it seems like this article disappeared from the HN homepage a little too quickly. I know this can happen with stories linked to some sites, is primitivism.com one of them?
bhaak 11y ago
Besides moon colonies and flying cars, this is another of the predictions of how the future would like that has turned out quite different than what was expected. It was supposed that we would work less, either involuntarily because the bad robots and computers took our jobs and made us obsolete or voluntarily, because automation would free us of doing the grinding work. Ironically both scenarios somewhat came true but it didn't result in less work. Doing work because you want to and not because you have to should be the goal. But currently I don't see this happen for the majority of the people. If we had an unconditional basic income, we would be much closer to this ideal but I am not sure how feasible it is at all and also how disrupting to our society as a whole the introduction would be.

40 points by iamcurious 11y ago

Keynes also drew some similar conclusions. Link to a PDF of his essay from 1930 on the matter is here: http://www.aspeninstitute.org/sites/default/files/content/upload/Intro_Session1.pdf http://www.aspeninstitute.org/sites/default/files/content/up...

beamatronic 11y ago

Who reads this much text anymore? Seriously, it's a wall of text.

nullc 11y ago
I thought it was an enjoyable read. It didn't take very long.
vvpan 11y ago
Don't work omg lol.
reustle 11y ago
I dictate articles when they get to this size

dollar 11y ago

One bright day in late autumn a family of Ants were bustling about in the warm sunshine, drying out the grain they had stored up during the summer, when a starving Grasshopper, his fiddle under his arm, came up and humbly begged for a bite to eat. "What!" cried the Ants in surprise, "haven't you stored anything away for the winter? What in the world were you doing all last summer?" "I didn't have time to store up any food," whined the Grasshopper; "I was so busy making music that before I knew it the summer was gone." The Ants shrugged their shoulders in disgust. "Making music, were you?" they cried. "Very well; now dance!" And they turned their backs on the Grasshopper and went on with their work. There's a time for work and a time for play.

mitchtbaum 11y ago
(Original) Aesop's Fables - The Ant and the Grasshopper [~600 BCE] https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Ants_and_the_Grasshopper https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Ants_and_the_Grasshopper (^^Fork) Aesop's Fables: Illustrated and Adapted for Children [1919] (translator not identified) http://mythfolklore.net/aesopica/milowinter/32.htm http://mythfolklore.net/aesopica/milowinter/32.htm ----- Interesting adaptation..
Retra 11y ago
Yet the grasshopper will steal the ants' food, and because he is much bigger than them, he will be happy and well-fed. And the ants will be food machines with no purpose for being except to fulfill the grasshopper's desires.
herbig 11y ago
That's cute of you, but the point of the essay is that we're not working for food anymore. We're working to sustain the system of work and to buy iPhones.
n007 11y ago
You missed the point. His concept of work is "voluntary work" (or play) that which you are not forced by another human to do.

OJFord 11y ago

In such a world, one stands to gain so much by being willing to work. And thus, the 'modern' world is born.

dang 11y ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9844042 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9844042

ZenoArrow 11y ago

Call me crazy if you like, but it seems like this article disappeared from the HN homepage a little too quickly. I know this can happen with stories linked to some sites, is primitivism.com one of them?

bhaak 11y ago

Besides moon colonies and flying cars, this is another of the predictions of how the future would like that has turned out quite different than what was expected. It was supposed that we would work less, either involuntarily because the bad robots and computers took our jobs and made us obsolete or voluntarily, because automation would free us of doing the grinding work. Ironically both scenarios somewhat came true but it didn't result in less work. Doing work because you want to and not because you have to should be the goal. But currently I don't see this happen for the majority of the people. If we had an unconditional basic income, we would be much closer to this ideal but I am not sure how feasible it is at all and also how disrupting to our society as a whole the introduction would be.