this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2023
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Antiwork

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  1. We're trying to improving working conditions and pay.

  2. We're trying to reduce the numbers of hours a person has to work.

  3. We talk about the end of paid work being mandatory for survival.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

The premise here is kinda blurred, but I think it does exist and goes something like that:

If you want to live and benefit from a society you must contribute to it

Is it wrong? Is it right? I think the anwser lies somewhere in between.

However one that is not established and I think it should be written down is one that my pops used to say:

Do not live to work, and if you love your job and enjoy it there more than anywhere in the world than you are already living, but even so do it with moderation else it will destroy you or turn something you love back to work.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The main thing that is overlooked is that people who don't work still contribute to society in ways that don't align with capitalism. Not all art needs to be bought and sold. A ton of care is provided for free instead of through a job. A community cleaning up a common space without exchanging money is still contributing to society.

I wouldn't even consider a lot of things that do align with capitalism to be contributing to society. Most advertising for example.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Not all art needs to be bought and sold.

Damn straight. I'm an artist and I don't sell my art cause I don't like having a transactional relationship with someone.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Totally agree, but there will always be outliers in any standard system being it socialism, capitalism and everything in between.

And to measure contributions of such outliers is a problem hard to solve, problem that hurts such outliers more than everyone else.

I stand on the two statements above, but as you pointed out there are still problems and solutions must be found.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

There’s a difference between contributing to society by performing productive or helpful labor, and the sort institutionalized wage slavery we currently call “work.”

Most of us are subject to the tyranny of the clock, petty bosses, arbitrary rules about where we work or how we dress. This is what we never opted into and can opt out only after a lifetime of it or at great cost in terms of our ability to provide the necessities for ourselves.

Anarchist Bob Black explores this distinction in his essay, The Abolition of Work. I recommend reading it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

True, but honestly I think the only solution to such wage slavery is basic universal income, which is something truly hard to achieve in my ignorant eyes.

Once people feel/know that they can go on without a job, those who do have one, either because they want more or want to dive and contribute back to a certain area, would not subject to unfair conditions regulating everything in and related to work from

tyranny of the clock, petty bosses, arbitrary rules about where we work or how we dress ...

Thanks for the recommendation will give it a look.