re: #222 freetoken

The bottom line is we’re stuck with a lot of 18th century thinking and institutions in a 21st century world that needs to work a different way.

There’s a story I’ve probably told here before, about a Conservative friend who challenged me to a debate on an internet forum with the topic

“Resolved: That an employer owes his employees no more compensation than is necessary to keep them from going elsewhere.”

My first response was, “Certainly, as long as you agree that the employee owes his employer no more work than is necessary to keep from being fired.”

He was OUTRAGED!!!! You should do your best, no matter what! This was What’s Wrong With This Country, that workers slacked off, etc.

To him, the employer’s responsibility is a business equation, but the worker’s responsibility was a moral imperative. This thinking is common everywhere, but mostly on the Right, and at its heart is the belief that work itself is a moral imperative. Now, working less than 40 hours is viewed as somehow shameful, and we pay based on that. At the same time, technology moves forward, making more goods with fewer workers. We end up with more people than work.