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No, I said very clearly in my original comment that everyone gets a job, even schizophrenics and quadriplegics. There is something that everyone can do. If you
by bokonist 12y ago
No, I said very clearly in my original comment that everyone gets a job, even schizophrenics and quadriplegics. There is something that everyone can do. If you are physically disabled you can monitor security cameras or transcribe city council recordings or something. If you are mentally disabled you can still probably pick up trash in city parks. There is some make work job available for almost anybody. The only exception would be the extreme mentally ill, who would need to be treated and provided supportive housing as they are now. But if you are mentally able, but just unwilling, then you go hungry. Or maybe you get a soup kitchen and a bed in a shelter. But in someway it will be unpleasant and hard, so as to disincentivize sloth.
- briantakita 12y agoIs sweeping streets a way of fulfilling your highest purpose in life? We live in an age of abundance. Why not allow people to create what they want to create? Art, music, love, good feelings in the community, etc. Here's a good story on a dystopia & utopia in an age with automated machinery, less jobs, & more overall abundance. http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm
- sanswork 12y agoDo you have any experience with people with mental illnesses or disabilities? "Everyone can work, we can find a job for everyone" just seems like something that could only be claimed from a position of ignorance. Further shown by your suggestion of having them pick up trash. People with a lot of mental illnesses aren't incapable of working due to a lack of skills.
- bokonist 12y agoIt really depends on the mental illness. Most mentally ill people could do something, most of the time. What exactly they could do would depend on the particular illness. Many are not currently hireable because even one episode a week is enough to get them fired. Some are not currently hirable because they have been out of the workforce for so long, that they have lost a bunch of habits. I think that could be remedied. But, as I said, if they are really incapable of any possible employment, then they should get treatment and supportive housing.
- rodgerd 12y agoThis sounds horribly like the old Soviet Union, where everyone had a right to a job, whether you liked it or not.
- bokonist 12y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7908527 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7908527
- gress 12y agoWhat you are describing is prison workshops.
- bokonist 12y agoI'm not sure how both you and rodgerd could mis-comprehend me so badly. What I am describing is exactly how things work in the U.S. now, except that if you cannot find a job and your benefits run out, the government will give you a job. The free market for all other jobs still exists. You don't have to take a job if you do not want to. The only difference between the current America and my proposal, is that in the current America if you cannot find a job you go without food and shelter, while in my proposal you always have the option of getting a job. I do not know if you are trolling or arguing in bad faith, but I don't know how you guys are spinning this as some prison camp or soviet style thing.
- gress 12y agoHow does it differ from Soviet full employment? Also the discussion isn't about a comparison with how the US is now. It's about how to deal with a future where much less work is needed. Suggesting that when humanity finally conquers scarcity, we should institute a mandatory full employment program where people must do unnecessary make-work jobs or face starvation in the streets is a totalitarian nightmare of the most inhumane order.