If any of the above qualities is missing, dissatisfaction starts setting in.\u00a0\u00a0 If many are missing, it\u2019s a recipe for distress affecting you and others around you.<\/p>\n
The picture I\u2019d like to paint is moving towards a world where every person can say \u201call of the above\u201d about their work.\u00a0 Impossible you say?\u00a0 Well, perhaps not in my lifetime, but if we don\u2019t dream of what we want and put our collective talents to achieving it, we\u2019ll remain stuck in our present quagmire.<\/p>\n
Humans from early childhood are naturally active, curious, creative and social beings who strive to meet their basic needs, take care of each other, solve problems as they arise and come up with new and better ideas for doing all of this.\u00a0 Too often, these impulses are stifled by the way work is structured in so-called \u201cadvanced\u201d and \u201ccivilized\u201d societies.<\/p>\n
In modern urban and industrialized settings, young people are conditioned that working hard, even if you\u2019re unhappy on the job, is necessary for survival.\u00a0 A certain level of unemployment and job insecurity must be maintained so that people are grateful for whatever paid work they can get.<\/p>\n
In rural and indigenous communities with longstanding traditions of healthy ties to the land, more and more people are being driven off of their ancestral lands and forced to work under abusive conditions as plantation laborers or in sweatshops.<\/p>\n
Many workplaces ignore worker grievances, sending the message:\u00a0 if you don\u2019t like it you can quit, there are plenty more who want your job!\u00a0 Despite official policies to the contrary, many workers face discrimination and bullying from supervisors and colleagues conditioned to get ahead by putting others down.<\/p>\n
The actual content of more and more jobs is soul-deadening and de-humanizing.\u00a0 High tech whizzes sit long hours at computers devising ever more complex and inscrutable financial and marketing instruments aimed at increasing and consolidating wealth for the few.\u00a0 Others concoct an endless stream of consumer products that are superfluous, wasteful and often harmful, in the race for market share and profit. \u00a0\u201cSecurity\u201d sector workers (soldiers, security guards, police, prison guards, airport screeners and other enforcers) are given tiny realms of power within rigid chains of command and trained to forcefully order others around, usually in the service of the rich.\u00a0 \u00a0Propaganda and PR sectors distort and manipulate messages to poison people\u2019s minds with a narrative that upholds a grossly unequal and unjust capitalistic system.<\/p>\n
Capitalism requires corporations to maximize profits for the few.\u00a0 They do so by increasing revenue via deceptive and manipulative marketing, while reducing costs–including labor costs–as much as possible.\u00a0 Labor costs are minimized via union busting, lobbying against minimum wage increases, outsourcing, restructuring, layoffs, and shifting from fixed employment to contract piece work. \u00a0Automation is the ultimate cost-cutting measure, eliminating countless jobs permanently. Watch out, professional drivers–self-driving vehicles are on the way.<\/p>\n
So how to get there from here?<\/strong><\/p>\n Adam Simpson\u2019s insightful TMS article notes:\u00a0 The Problem isn\u2019t Robots Taking our Jobs.\u00a0 It\u2019s Oligarchs Taking our Power<\/a>. \u201cTraining for the jobs of the future keeps\u00a0workers trapped as long as workers can\u2019t shape how technology is used and who profits from it.\u201d<\/p>\n As Simpson points out, \u201cCapitalism also relies on what is popularly referred to as \u2018unskilled\u2019 labor [e.g. in food systems and on farms]. It is labor that is both essential in maintaining society (and capitalism itself) and simultaneously poorly compensated\u2013if compensated at all.\u00a0 Without the minimum wage workers in Amazon\u2019s fulfillment centers, the \u2018high-tech\u2019 company\u2019s executives get nothing\u2014and neither do Amazon\u2019s high-skilled software development engineers and machine learning scientists.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s time to dismantle the capitalist house of cards propped up by low wage workers hoodwinked into believing that their survival depends on the whims of wealthy oligarchs.\u00a0 What if more and more workers looked around and asked each other, why are we doing this?\u00a0 What if we instead believe in the collective power of our own skills and relationships with each other, engage in global strikes, let the structure collapse, and re-build a more solid and sustainable one?\u00a0 The house we can all live in<\/a> would have a quality-of-life floor of a minimum living standard, a ceiling of maximum personal material wealth, and a beautiful garden, open to the sky, where everyone can enjoy unlimited<\/em> social, intellectual and cultural wealth.<\/p>\n In the process we need to democratize power by getting money out of politics and eliminating excessive profit motives for a few.\u00a0 Truly democratic government institutions can focus on providing high quality basic services to all.\u00a0 Private sector enterprises should be incentivized to become worker owned cooperatives, practicing workplace democracy. \u00a0Instead of being exploited, agricultural workers who grow the food we rely on for our very survival are especially deserving of optimal working conditions, generous compensation and elevated status.<\/p>\n In order to prepare our children for the future of work we need to teach them in school about worker solidarity and the history of the labor movement. \u00a0Instead of being prodded to compete for limited spaces at universities and scarce \u201cdream\u201d jobs (guaranteeing that many will lose out), young people should be learning how to build a society where every job is a good job.<\/p>\n We should teach children about worker ownership models such as the extensive worker cooperative network in Mondragon, Spain; Cuba\u2019s transition of many former state-owned enterprises to worker cooperatives; Italy\u2019s rich tradition of cooperatives including social cooperatives for those facing barriers to employment; indigenous traditions of communal labor; and worker cooperatives in their own neighborhoods.\u00a0 From early ages on, children and adults need extensive practice in collective decision making and peaceful conflict resolution.<\/p>\n We need to vastly expand all job sectors that actually make people\u2019s lives more wonderful: organic food production; infrastructure and housing construction; useful, innovative and environmentally friendly industries; fair trade commerce; the arts and recreation; public banking; honest and people-centered journalism; education at all levels; and the vast array of healing professions<\/a>, including counseling, coaching and mentoring. \u00a0We need to instill cooperation over competition as the driving engine of human activity, with a massive influx of mediators to ensure inevitable conflicts are resolved in healthy ways that serve all parties\u2019 needs.<\/p>\n We should minimize or eliminate jobs in de-humanizing, coercive and deceptive sectors like private finance, insurance, military, polluting industries, and PR, offering ample \u201cre-skilling\u201d and job placement in all of the above life-affirming sectors.<\/p>\n We can bust the myth that prospects of exorbitant payouts are necessary motivators for technical advancements.\u00a0 In Gaviotas[i]<\/a> , Colombia, a few decades ago, community-minded engineers developed highly innovative and ecological systems for energy production and local agriculture motivated by the sheer joy of figuring it out and for the benefit it brought to others.<\/p>\n As technology and automation evolve, we should reduce working hours for everyone, leaving more time for leisure, family, friends, and learning.\u00a0 Community volunteerism during people\u2019s spare time and in retirement should be encouraged.<\/p>\n The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 23, affirms everyone\u2019s right to dignified work under favorable conditions and protection against unemployment. Everyone can contribute in some way.\u00a0 Parents and family caregivers who are not in the formal workforce should have support to raise children and care for loved ones.\u00a0 The severely disabled can still engage in stimulating activities and be taken care of.\u00a0 Those who appear lazy or unwilling to work are likely depressed and need a healing intervention to integrate them into a productive and inclusive community.\u00a0 The elderly should be able to retire with comfortable pensions to honor past contributions, yet encouraged to stay involved and contribute in whatever ways they choose.<\/p>\n Humans do have the capacity to make this happen!\u00a0 By harnessing our imagination, intelligence, energy, and solidarity we can most certainly figure out how to heal the pathologies of greed<\/a> and violence; how to utilize and share the earth\u2019s abundant resources to give everyone, including future generations, a joyful life.<\/p>\n NOTE:<\/strong><\/p>\n [i]<\/a> Weisman, Alan: Gaviotas:\u00a0 A Village to Reinvent the World<\/em>, Chelsea Green Publishing Company, Vermont, 1998.<\/p>\n ________________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n In order to prepare our children for the future of work we need to teach them in school about worker solidarity and the history of the labor movement. Instead of being prodded to compete for limited spaces at universities and scarce \u201cdream\u201d jobs (guaranteeing that many will lose out), young people should be learning how to build a society where every job is a good job.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":98575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Marilyn-Langlois-e1508246946670.jpg\")
<\/a><\/em>Marilyn Langlois is a member of TRANSCEND<\/a> USA West Coast. She is a volunteer community organizer and international solidarity activist based in Richmond, California.\u00a0 A co-founder of the Richmond Progressive Alliance<\/a>, member of Haiti Action Committee<\/a> and Board member of Task Force on the Americas<\/a>, she is retired from previous employment as a teacher, secretary, administrator, mediator and community advocate.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"