So, I touched on this before, but I feel a need to discuss my views in more details here. So, as anyone can tell on this blog, I'm anti work. I believe, in short, that work is unpleasant, that work is a means to an end and not an end in itself, and that we should actively structure society to allow us to both work less and make remaining work significantly more voluntary.
Back in the day, my religious worldview reflected Understanding the Times' Christian worldview. I believed that this world was fallen, that we had to work as punishment, and that things just were the way they were. We couldn't change things, utopianism is bad and just leads to whatever the USSR did, and there was no point in trying.
But...when I deconverted, it flipped a switch. And because I abandoned the Christian worldview, it caused me to have to rethink about what I believe from the ground up. No stone was unturned, and given the role between my religion and conservative politics, I quickly liberalized as I left the faith. In some ways it worked the other way too. I left the faith in part because I was liberalizing and I was understanding the fundies were crazy on issues like abortion and gay marriage. But then when the deconversion happened, it caused me to question everything. And my economic views radically changed too.
The fact is, my worldview went from one where we constantly had to work or the economy would fall apart, to a world in which the problem was we didn't have enough work available, and people had to beg for jobs from abusive bosses just to survive. And everything about this arrangement seemed cruel. It was messed up. I mean, to be brutally honest, I never glorified or fetishized work as a concept. A lot of people do that in society. Act like jobs are so great and we need them for our own sake or something. Like we need something to give purpose to our lives. But Im going to be honest, my dad hated his job, and I always FEARED working because I knew how crappy it actually was. I never had this weird romanticization of work drilled into me, and when asked what I really wanted to do in the future, I always drew a massive blank. I really didn't wanna do anything. I guess as a Christian i was so brainwashed I wanted to go into politics and push my weird distorted views of Christianity on everyone, but I really had no plans on getting there. And approaching this as a new atheist, I was like, screw this, shove your fake purpose up you know where, let's call this what this is, SLAVERY. It's just slavery with extra steps.
Like seriously, if adam and eve didn't exist, and we dont have an inherent purpose, and we dont actually NEED to work like we do, why do we? Why this talk of creating jobs? I want off this crazy merry go round. If I don't want to work, and they dont wanna provide me a job, and i have to beg just to get some crappy low wage job at mcdonalds, then why do we do this? Why do I need to suffer and work to justify my existence?
Some say the answer to joblessness is a jobs guarantee. I mean, there is some inherent justice in it, if you're going to force people to work, at least ensure that people can find work at a decent wage and living standard. But I really have to question, why work at all? For me, work is a means to an end, that end being the goods and services that we need, it's not an end to itself. If we can provide for everyone without everyone working, why work? To increase GDP and theoretically have more stuff? At what point should better distribution of resources and less focus on work take precedence over growth? I would actually argue we're well past that. We grow every year in theory, but I feel like we don't really feel it. If anything workers were more secure in the past during the 1940s-1970s when GDP was 1/3-1/2 what it is today. neoliberalism has offered us never ending growth being a tide that raises all boats, but it seems like if the boats are sinking because they can't keep up with ever increasing cost of living, it's pointless. In practice, American living standards have stagnated for decades for the bottom 80% of people, while the top 20% have been making out like bandits. And this trend is only expected to continue or even accelerate as service jobs with bad wages, precarious working hours, and bad working conditions continue to become the norm. There IS a war on normal people, as Yang pointed out, and it's a war we've been losing for decades. And much like him, I settled on UBI being the policy.
Not only would UBI fix much of what's wrong with the economy, increasing living standards, eliminating poverty, providing an economic security that not even a steady job can, but it also provides something else: freedom. Freedom to say no, not just to any job, but all jobs. With UBI, we can finally weaken the link between work and income, and in the process, question just how much that link is needed at all. It's a revolutionary change, and it's one that could be passed as an act of congress without any of the risk that come with more leftist approaches to the economy. I researched UBI extensively and applied all of my political science and social science skills to analyzing it, and I believe it is THE policy we need in the 21st century. And you know what? We should work less.
Like really, why do we work? People act like, if not for people working, the sky would fall. Like humans don't know what to do with themselves without work. And you know what? This is conditioning from the protestant work ethic. You see, Christians tend to think if people were left to their own devices, it would open them up to sin. People would have a lot of time sitting around, and they would start questioning things. And they might decide Christianity is a load of crap. And they might drink and do drugs and blah blah blah. For the Christian, human is a sinful being that absolutely can't be left to their own devices, because if they are, they will start expressing their sinful nature. SO they need the discipline of work and industriousness in order to avoid this fate. It makes sense if you adopt such a grim view of human nature, but if you have a more positive, or even, as I would describe it, neutral nature, well then, you might spend your time doing other things. The evidence seems to show that assuming UBI isn't insanely high and the tax rates are not insanely burdensome, that most people would still work, to acquire higher living standards. And I say, if people want to work, let them work. But if they don't want to work, and society is not greatly harmed by them not working, then they shouldn't be forced to. The right to say no should take precedence. To allow anything else is tantamount to slavery in my worldview. Because you're basically adopting the idea that we need to be forced to work and need the discipline of a job...for our own good. That's nonsense, and an extremely harmful and destructive idea. I would rather embrace the nihilism of my secular humanist worldview over the forced labor of the Christian capitalist perspective, or other perspectives that cede ground to them (which is virtually all of them).
But that is the nature of plato's cave, and why I come out swinging so hard against the christian worldview. Because much of it is based on falsehoods, and I would argue it's actually responsible for a lot of the bad ideas that lead to a lot of suffering in America today. Conservative Christians live in their own little alternate reality based on a book of fairy tales, and when that book conflicts with reality, they will reject reality to live according to the book. And their ideas are ubiquitous in American society.
We can do so much better. And no, such utopian thinking won't lead to disastrous outcomes. I mean, Christians might have a point about marxism leninism, but any more liberal or social democratic approach to economic issues based on reality and sound social science such as UBI or medicare for all are going to actually make the world a better place. And that's the problem. The conservative worldview does not really make any meaningful distinctions between liberal philosophies under secular humanism, postmodern philosophies, and hard line marxism leninism. They just treat them as a massive multiheaded hydra and blur the lines between them, even though some are significantly more based on reason and evidence than others.
That said, I believe a world with less work is possible. We just have to choose it, and we have to use the proper tools to get there. Sure, the anarchists on r/antiwork who rail against the evils of capitalism might not fully grasp the problem with their position. But, more moderate blends of such ideas based more on liberal principles a la, say, human centered capitalism, are well within reach. And I think that they are worth exploring, investigating, and ultimately implementing. Secular humanism has shown me a better world is possible, and has made me a fierce convert to the cause of wanting to make peoples' lives better. But, I want to do so in a way that actually works. I may have my own biases, and you can feel free to disagree, but I believe this perspective is legitimate. If we can work a lot less, distribute wealth a lot better, and still at the end of the day get our needs taken care of, we should do it. I don't care about ever increasing GDP. The social ills surrounding this ideology of jobism and never ending increase of GDP are greater than the actual benefits of that GDP in my honest opinion. Id rather build a more ethical form of capitalism based on actual voluntary associations and better work life balance, than have a bigger stock market or theoretical economic pie that doesn't benefit me in meaningful ways anyway.
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