Sunshine119
Posts: 611
Joined: 8/8/2005
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Rule
My observations lead me to conclude that all people want to work and be useful, unless they are ill. There is a spectrum of ardour, though, measured only in one dimension. When looked at in this single dimension, one might conclude that someone works hardly at all, whereas in fact such a person may work very hard in a non-measurable way. The obvious example is the house wife: does not earn a wage, so she must be a lazy bitch. Another example is the artist or writer: spends years doing nothing, earning no money, so must be a lazy bastard. Then, out of the blue: a master piece.
Consequently, in our society, we are only worth as much as we currently earn. Now, I make an upper middle class salary, however, I fully appreciate the fact that I would be totally f**ked over if the woman who made the coffee at my local convenience store didn't get up earlier than me and work in a more physical fashion than I do in order for it to be ready when I so desperately need it! However...she is paid at only a fraction of what I make. Is that fair?
If all jobs paid the same, then all labor would be valued equally. I would still do my job, because I love what I do. She might still do her job because she might be unable to do more mentally challenging work, besides, she loves to socialize with her customers, which gives her joy. The artist would get to enrich the world with their talents and when all positions are paid the same, we would all start seeing each other very differently.
If one would like to argue that brainpower or special talents should entitle them to more pay, I would like to see how they would try and construct that argument. What did they do to gain their own intellegence? Nothing. Most likely it is nothing more than genetics that caused that. Education? Hmmm.....once again, even if they took out a ton of student loans, they were in a position to do that, whereas many are not. Talents are probably genetic as well.
So when you reduce all the factors, there is nothing that any of us have done to totally, absolutely entitle us to obscene pay. Everything we have, has been passed down to us in one fashion or another. If people realized that ALL labor is valuable, then everyone could take pride in what he/she did. For those of you who would argue that the "experiment" of socialism has failed, I would argue that it hasn't taken place yet.
Work gives meaning to our lives. It causes us to have a healthy self-esteem and is an excellent way of developing as part of the larger social structure. We should have to work. This may consist of raising healthy children (in mind and body), in creating jobs for others, creating art (music/visual) or in providing a service. But we shouldn't hate the work we do because it doesn't measure up to what society's perception of a "good job" is.
Sunshine
the rabid socialist
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Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.
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RE: People should not have to work for a living. - 
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