"The present moment is a desperate one. If you look at statistics, the reality has never been more clear that, the west, particularly the United States, has always been built on the idea that the U.S. has it so much better than the rest of the world. Isn't better a relative word? I mean, in 2019, fifty million Americans are living in distressed communities. The desperation is real, with high unemployment, dependancy issues, addiction, and high crime rates. Well, okay, what if we didn't treat employment as a status? What if it was socially acceptable to not have to grind and slave away? Wouldn't that make crime rates and addiction rates drop sharply? Maybe we should de-stigmatize unemployment and encourage others to not be so dependant on a job. Granted, work is valuable and needed for societies to exist, but under global capitalism, employment isn't about working for the benefit of society. Millions of jobs don't need to exist. Employment is about productivity that benefits the capitalist class. So, I would argue that, if employment isn't about benefiting society, it shouldn't be seen as a sacred idea. And to be unemployed should not be so stigmatized."
DAVID GRAEBER, University of Birmingham, 2019
npub12c…ze0wt
2023-09-15 14:18:25
Author Public Key
npub12cqszdue3a8xek34slf3k8x8xev408vvs5qr3mqw2h86k3vn99eqtze0wtPublished at
2023-09-15 14:18:25Event JSON
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"content": "\"The present moment is a desperate one. If you look at statistics, the reality has never been more clear that, the west, particularly the United States, has always been built on the idea that the U.S. has it so much better than the rest of the world. Isn't better a relative word? I mean, in 2019, fifty million Americans are living in distressed communities. The desperation is real, with high unemployment, dependancy issues, addiction, and high crime rates. Well, okay, what if we didn't treat employment as a status? What if it was socially acceptable to not have to grind and slave away? Wouldn't that make crime rates and addiction rates drop sharply? Maybe we should de-stigmatize unemployment and encourage others to not be so dependant on a job. Granted, work is valuable and needed for societies to exist, but under global capitalism, employment isn't about working for the benefit of society. Millions of jobs don't need to exist. Employment is about productivity that benefits the capitalist class. So, I would argue that, if employment isn't about benefiting society, it shouldn't be seen as a sacred idea. And to be unemployed should not be so stigmatized.\"\n\nDAVID GRAEBER, University of Birmingham, 2019",
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