>I was again, arguing about work on reddit. Someone said that even animals "work" to survive. I found that the comparison was not really good.
Seems like a good comparison to me. Society is not post-scarcity. People in society must produce a surplus and contribute that surplus. Economics is how we measure how much contribution happened.
>Food and shelter are abundant.
Food prices are climbing and housing is in bubble territory. Abundance is complicated.
>I guess that's what people criticize about current capitalism.
Marx has many valid arguments against capitalism. It's very obvious today that socialism is dead. It officially died in 1989. Though that doesnt solve the problems with capitalism.
>In earlier times, in hunter gatherer societies, food was scarce and work was important. But today, you cannot tell people that working in fast food or in customer support is mandatory to eat and have a roof on your head.
Nobody is saying they must work the mcjob. Many many other jobs out there. Entrepreneurship is important to capitalism.
However we absolutely are saying you must contribute something to society in order to eat and have a roof over their head. If you don't, that's your decision, you deal with the consequences. Our society is not at the point where work is optional. Perhaps getting people out of the mcjobs and building a fully automated factory where food just comes out at no cost. Where housing can be 3d printed in a weekend anywhere in the world. We get to the point where maslow heirarchy of needs is solved and you can decide to not-work as much as you like.
I think the issue is we are not in a post scarcity world and do not work towards such a thing. If it is cheaper to hire a human instead of automatic a job - we do that. Eventually exporting jobs to the poorest countries where people suffer creating useless crap or fast fashion.
What we are doing is not reasonable if you had the greater good of humanity and planet in mind. The return on investment alone is a bad compass that will make more and more people suffer.
Seems like a good comparison to me. Society is not post-scarcity. People in society must produce a surplus and contribute that surplus. Economics is how we measure how much contribution happened.
>Food and shelter are abundant.
Food prices are climbing and housing is in bubble territory. Abundance is complicated.
>I guess that's what people criticize about current capitalism.
Marx has many valid arguments against capitalism. It's very obvious today that socialism is dead. It officially died in 1989. Though that doesnt solve the problems with capitalism.
>In earlier times, in hunter gatherer societies, food was scarce and work was important. But today, you cannot tell people that working in fast food or in customer support is mandatory to eat and have a roof on your head.
Nobody is saying they must work the mcjob. Many many other jobs out there. Entrepreneurship is important to capitalism.
However we absolutely are saying you must contribute something to society in order to eat and have a roof over their head. If you don't, that's your decision, you deal with the consequences. Our society is not at the point where work is optional. Perhaps getting people out of the mcjobs and building a fully automated factory where food just comes out at no cost. Where housing can be 3d printed in a weekend anywhere in the world. We get to the point where maslow heirarchy of needs is solved and you can decide to not-work as much as you like.