Hand to Mouth

Some common ground between anti-capitalists (labour should get all the reward) and anti-welfare (work ethic/ safety nets make people lazy) is a romanticising of work. Work for work’s sake. This commits us to hand to mouth living. Hand to mouth living commits us to cycles of booms and bust when our hands aren’t sufficient. Hand to mouth living commits us to hunger when there is not enough work. If you think of work as problem solving, then presumably you want the problem to be solved. We shouldn’t be afraid of technological advances solving problems, or increases in supply of people able to solve the problem making it cheaper to solve. We shouldn’t build borders that keep problem solvers out. We shouldn’t want to create fake problems just to keep people busy so we can pay them with “dignity”. We should welcome the spread of knowledge. This can only come if we turn everyone into owners. With Capital that moves from solved problem to new or harder problems. Work isn’t just a way of keeping us busy. The last thing we should be killing is time.