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On the other hand, what the "technology will eliminate all jobs" crowd never seems to understand is that mere survival is only part of the motivation for having
by john_b 13y ago
On the other hand, what the "technology will eliminate all jobs" crowd never seems to understand is that mere survival is only part of the motivation for having a job. It may be the base of Maslow's hierarchy, but a lot of people who have "bullshit" jobs have already climbed above that base.
People want to be able to talk about what they do with their life in a way that makes them seem important. "I collect my basic income and paint" may be satisfying, but it isn't impressive. People are vain animals who want to one-up other vain animals. "I'm a project manager at BigCorp" or "I'm an accountant at a multi-million dollar company" sounds much better, even if the actual work is insipid and unimportant.
People often work jobs they don't like because of the secondary (non-monetary) benefits associated with them. Having a perfectly fair (for whatever definition of "fair") system of distributing wealth would not eliminate the effects of basic human vanity and irrationality on society and the economy. There will always be bullshit jobs because people use bullshit for the self-serving purpose of improving their apparent worth to others.
- nfoz 13y agoThese anecdotes about human psychology/sociology are observations from systems where work was expected and understood to contribute to the private, if not public, good. It's not at all clear that they would remain very long in a post-scarcity economy. But let's say basic needs are met through automation, I'm sure cultures will keep some degree of competitiveness / judgement of others through voluntary works and human pursuits e.g. art. But we'll also all have food.
- dllthomas 13y agoNo one's arguing that people should be forced to not work. Basic Income advocates think that if you're already stuck not having a job, you shouldn't also be stuck with as many of the other things that not having a job currently implies. And if you have something important to do that's not "a job" that brings you satisfaction, we don't need you taking a job away from someone who wants one.