Monday 7 November 2011

A Waste of Energy

Many years ago a mate said to me that everyone should spend a turn on the dole, in order to open their eyes to the system we have in this society. I think that's a great point - not that I wish destitution and financial insecurity on people.
Society goes to such great lengths to make people feel that work is the be all and the end all that you have to wonder if there's something to hide. The phrase 'hardworking' is bandied about with almost reckless abandon, but usually by the manager class in this country. People that don't subscribe to this notion are immediately marginalised as lazy.
This is absurd. Firstly I subscribe to the Taoist ideology that simply says one should only exert the required amount of effort to perform the task at hand well. But again our society views that as the definition of sloth. This is also absurd. Whatever is the point of just frittering and wasting our time and energy - as if the time and energy of the unemployed are worth less than the 'hard' working man's own. If one wastes their energy, putting in '110%' effort (and other such stock cliches), then one is only going to run out of energy quicker.
I always find this idea of hard working people somewhat laughable: are people typing their keyboards harder or faster? Are they checking items on a till faster and faster like robots? Is that even what people want from businesses? Wasting energy is foolish and it isn't hardwork; quite the opposite.
But the phrase has become the tool of our divisive capitalist system: you are either a member of the hardworking taxpayer class, or you are a scrounger. The deserving and the undeserving. I don't want to work hard; what's the point of that? I want to spend my time doing things that give my life value. Whether they earn money really is irrelevant - except for the unfortunate fact that's how the system works. Anything that doesn't earn money is meaningless.
Why don't we have an unemployment system that firstly ensures people are financially secure. That should be a given, not a component wholly dependent on factors such as, again, effort - effort in jobseeking. What we should do then is allow the individual to contribute whatever it is he enjoys doing in life, be it writing, reporting (or blogging), creating, and then put that into the marketplace (if we must have such a thing).
Or better yet the Citizen's Wage. Do away with the the DWP almost entirely. DO away with workfare pimps, the likes of Emma Harrison, and ATOS. Save money rather than waste it. Then you have a secure bottom line - the safety net welfare is meant to be - and people can live healthier happier lives. With that people will feel better about working communally for the social good, not driven into meaningless jobs that force them to waste their energy for next to no reward with positions that alienate them from society and in some cases family.
Just a thought.

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