Tuesday, November 03, 2015

Oh, there's work.

IF YOU'RE UNEMPLOYED,
IT'S NOT BECAUSE
THERE ISN'T ANY WORK

Just look around: A housing shortage, crime, pollution; we need better schools and parks. Whatever our needs, they all require work. And as long as we have unsatisfied needs,

THERE IS WORK TO BE DONE.

So ask yourself, what kind of world has work but no jobs? It’s a world where work is not related to satisfying our needs, a world where work is only related to satisfying the profit needs of business.

This country was not built by the huge corporations or government bureaucracies. It was built by people who work. And, it is working people who should control the work to be done. Yet, as long as employment is tied to somebody else’s profits, the work won’t get done.
- An old poster from the New American Movement

2 comments:

Snarfangel said...

I arrived via convoluted route (this cartoon seems apropos: http://www.cyberlawcentre.org/unlocking-ip/blog/uploaded_images/the_problem_with_wikipedia-738907.png), from frequency analysis to the ASET keyboard to this.

Anyway, I just wanted to agree that there is work out there, and mention that the 19th century political economist Henry George had a rather elegant solution for increasing employment. Specifically, by removing the erroneous economic conflation of land (in the sense of all naturally occurring resources whose supply is inherently fixed) and capital, and moving all taxes onto the former.

Qwertie said...

XKCD fans are always welcome here... but I'm not following. Superficially, at least, you seem to be suggesting (1) farmers, as the greatest landowners, should pay for most of the government's operations, and that (2) no matter how rich you or your company is, you shouldn't have to pay any taxes as long as you rent your land from someone else.