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The problem isn't volunteering or things being free. The problem is people getting bullshit jobs or even harmful-to-the-world jobs to pay the bills so they can

The problem isn't volunteering or things being free. The problem is people getting bullshit jobs or even harmful-to-the-world jobs to pay the bills so they can do their volunteering. The problem is a world of extreme inequity in wealth and political power. The problem is that most products remain non-free by being encumbered by ads and paywalls. The fact is, even when things are totally free, big money finds a way to bury those things. Similar to people who used to rent DVDs from a store when their public library down the street had the same DVD on the shelf at no extra cost. If we could destroy the funding of the ad- and paywall-driven businesses, the free stuff could shine. Of course, better to move the funding to the free stuff and have it be even better.

int_19h 6y ago
Bullshit jobs are an orthogonal problem, though. With solutions like UBI, or different arrangements wrt ownership of capital. I don't think it makes much sense to narrowly focus on it in the context of content creation.
- quadrangle 6y ago
  I just meant that BS jobs are a symptom of a society that doesn't fund creative work where it matters. If we did fund creative work better (however we did), a lot of creative people would leave their BS jobs. As David Graeber put it, people need an "out". UBI is a good out, but well-funded meaningful creative work is another potential out for at least some people.
  - int_19h 6y ago
    That's the thing, though - it's pretty clear that the market for creative work has too much supply and too little demand for it to be well-funded for everybody who wants to participate. Any arrangement that you make to change that is going to be welfare in disguise; so why not just be honest with ourselves, and spell it out? Let people have UBI that's good enough to actually live on - and then they can do creative work that they want to do, without having to worry about how they'll sell it.

int_19h 6y ago

Bullshit jobs are an orthogonal problem, though. With solutions like UBI, or different arrangements wrt ownership of capital. I don't think it makes much sense to narrowly focus on it in the context of content creation.

quadrangle 6y ago
I just meant that BS jobs are a symptom of a society that doesn't fund creative work where it matters. If we did fund creative work better (however we did), a lot of creative people would leave their BS jobs. As David Graeber put it, people need an "out". UBI is a good out, but well-funded meaningful creative work is another potential out for at least some people.
- int_19h 6y ago
  That's the thing, though - it's pretty clear that the market for creative work has too much supply and too little demand for it to be well-funded for everybody who wants to participate. Any arrangement that you make to change that is going to be welfare in disguise; so why not just be honest with ourselves, and spell it out? Let people have UBI that's good enough to actually live on - and then they can do creative work that they want to do, without having to worry about how they'll sell it.