In our civilized societies we are rich. Why then are the many poor? Why this painful drudgery for the masses? Why, even to the best-paid workman, this uncertainty for the morrow, in the midst of all the wealth inherited from the past, and in spite of the powerful means of production, which could ensure comfort to all, in return for a few hours daily toil? - Peter Kropotkin (1892)
It just shouldn’t be limited to farming.
Think of all the things you currently pay for. How much of that do you expect to be provided for you while you do nothing in return?
Garbage collection, water, electric, and yes, housing and food.
The idea seems to be that all these kinds of things would be provided, and you only have to work enough to buy your Xbox.
We’re not children and the government isn’t your parents.
I do think there should be more of a balance between these things. It is in everyone’s interest to provide really basic housing, even if just to keep the homeless off the streets.
But we also all have to work.
How much of your 40 hour work week do you think gets absorbed by the billionaires? I expect for most people it’s much less than half.
We should be able to handle healthcare, education, maybe minimal housing, meals on wheels was a great program. But we don’t want half of our people to just stop working. Your life requires upkeep, and that can’t all come from other people.
I really don’t understand how people read the title and read the quote from Kropotkin and think that the post is somehow anti-work. We have always had to secure the material goods of our existence whether we lived in hunter-gather societies, villages, feudalism, capitalism, etc. No one is arguing that we live in a post-scarcity Star Trek society.
The point is we shouldn’t have to work for someone who owns that physical/intellectual labor and gives wages in return. That is an economic system that has outgrown its usefulness.
China seems to be working hard on accomplishing it, with putting AI and robotics to better development and utilization, for the greater whole. I have my personal criticisms and if I lived there and had a vote, I would voice them, but when our society decides to come together for the greater whole, I can voice them then.