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I grew up with the puritanical mindset of: "Your intrinsic worth as a human is the money you earn; because the money you earn is from how hard you work; and how
by cjslep 7y ago
I grew up with the puritanical mindset of: "Your intrinsic worth as a human is the money you earn; because the money you earn is from how hard you work; and how hard you work is a reflection of your intrinsic Virtue."
Thus I grew up in a family that loathes the unemployed. I really hope -- though I have grave doubts -- that this event gets through to them, so that they can have some personal growth, too.
- Kaze404 7y agoThat is the saddest thing I've ever read on this site. I know there's people who believe that but it's still shocking to me.
- wmeredith 7y ago"Wealth is the product of man's capacity to think." -Ayn Rand I was also raised in a family like this.
- itronitron 7y agoThis is the view among most Americans, reinforced by the word 'un'employed which suggests that the default condition is for someone to be employed.
- rodiger 7y agoPerhaps not the default but it is the norm. Regardless of semantics we should be pushing UBI for exactly these instances.
- mrfusion 7y agoSadly everyone seems to be doubling down on their existing strong opinions. (Any ideas to improve that?)
- tr33house 7y agoI think this is wrongly attributed as puritanical
- binarytox1n 7y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant_work_ethic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant_work_ethic it's well known enough to be a common phrase, with it's own wiki entry.
- twoquestions 7y agoOne of my big hopes is at the end of this mess, the Protestant Work Ethic and Prosperity Gospel go down in flames. This event should show anyone with even a bit of sense that your 'virtue' is only a small part of your economic power.
- bbxxcc 7y agoI think loathing the unemployed (especially if it isn't caused by health conditions and isn't temporary, like in this case) is commonplace in any society. There are many studies which show unemployed people are more likely to commit crimes. e.g. [1] Unemployed people, by definition, are net consumers. [2] Unless society as a whole actually produces wealth, there is nothing to tax, and the government doesn't have any money to spend. And how does wealth get created without people in employment? Unless you are the country with the reserve currency, which effectively gives you the ability to keep printing money until the world catches up to the con. Which doesn't still change the underlying economics, it is just that at any given point in time there is always some country which will be using the reserve currency status to make it appear like you can create wealth by printing more money. Aiming for more employment is a net positive to any society, and I think that is what conditions people to loathe the permanently unemployed. [1] https://www.jstor.org/stable/40057352?seq=1 https://www.jstor.org/stable/40057352?seq=1 [2] I remember reading an essay by PG about how getting employment is when you go from being a "net consumer" to become a "net producer", cannot find the link.
- danharaj 7y agoLandlords are bigger parasites than any NEET.
- throwawayjava 7y agoI've encountered exactly two people in my life who were perfectly healthy, both mentally and physically, but just sat around all day doing nothing for years on end. Both were landlords.
- bjourne 7y ago> I think loathing the unemployed (especially if it isn't caused by health conditions and isn't temporary, like in this case) is commonplace in any society. There are many studies which show unemployed people are more likely to commit crimes. e.g. [1] Similarly, there are studies showing that rich people are less ethical. https://www.pnas.org/content/109/11/4086 https://www.pnas.org/content/109/11/4086 > Unemployed people, by definition, are net consumers. How do you define a "net consumer"? The only resource to consume on this planet is its ecosystem. Are unemployed people consuming more of our ecosystem than employed ones? I don't think so. A lot of free software has been created by people not in employment. So the idea that unemployed people cannot be contributing value to society is false.