NEGATIVE - CRITIQUE - CRITIQUE OF WORK 334

SOLVENCY: WORK DOES NOT CREATE HAPPINESS -- UNEMPLOYMENT IS GOOD

WORK MAKES PROMISES, BUT DOES NOT DELIVER HAPPINESS

S.L. Lowndes, [British] Sunday Times (8/8/1982) "Why Work?";

http://www-personal.usyd.edu.au/~sfraser/cat/dwu/whywork.htm // acs

I can only feel sorry for all those young school-leavers scouring the boards down at the jobcentre. They think a job will be the answer to all their problems. Someone has been misinforming them. Such dreams they have! The money, the friends, the clothes, a car, a flat! I would point out to them the drudgery of clerical work, the agony of labouring, and the unending grind of repitition. Work is not the answer to any problems, not even financial ones.

NO JOB IS GOOD ENOUGH FOR ANY OF US -- WE MUST DEMAND MORE

S.L. Lowndes, [British] Sunday Times (8/8/1982) "Why Work?";

http://www-personal.usyd.edu.au/~sfraser/cat/dwu/whywork.htm // acs

This may be only sour grapes because I am unemployable. there isn't a job good enough for me. There isn't a job good enough for anyone. It never fails to astound me that in this world where so much is possible, and where there is so much to take your breath away, so many are prepared to settle for so little.

UNEMPLOYMENT IS A SIGN OF PROGRESS -- A GOOD THING

Leisure Party, 1999; Beyond the Work Ethic

http://freespace.virgin.net/sarah.peter.nelson/menu3a.html // acs

Unemployment is here to stay and there is nothing we can do about it. Nor should we seek to do so. Unemployment is a sign of progress, it shows that humanity is at last being freed from the drudgery of work to have time for personal development. A life of leisure, once the exclusive preserve of the rich, is now open to all. We need to rediscover the pleasures of idleness and teach people the art of doing nothing. Doing nothing should not be considered a soft option but a lifestyle choice requiring determination and commitment. Time is the most precious thing on earth and to waste it working is a sin. Instead of trying to eliminate unemployment, which is neither achievable or desirable, we should be seeking instead to remove the stigma attached to it and to give back pride to those unable or unwilling to work.

KEEPING PEOPLE UNEMPLOYED WOULD ACTUALLY SAVE MONEY -- U.K. EXAMPLE

Leisure Party, 1999; Beyond the Work Ethic http://freespace.virgin.net/sarah.peter.nelson/menu3a.html // acs

Politicians repeatedly tell us that unemployment is expensive to the taxpayer, but this is because they think it is what people want to hear rather because it is true. The UK government budget is now £300 billion a year. There are around 1.8 million unemployed who receive £47 per week unemployment benefit giving a total of £84.6 million i.e. less than .03% of total government expenditure. It is a lot less than £1m it cost the taxpayer to keep one worker employed in 1979 at British Steel to produce steel nobody wanted.

The truth is that keeping people unemployed is far cheaper for the government than subsiding them to do work no one needs, which is one of the main reasons governments abandoned Keynsian style pump priming in the 1980s and why they are reluctant to adopt workfare schemes today. Indeed, the taxpayer pays a high price to keep people economically active. It is true that the UK government continues to bribe foreign companies to set up chip factories and car plants in the UK, but this is for political not economic reasons. The cost, at around £30,000 per job is far greater than keeping them unemployed.

UNEMPLOYMENT DOES NOT LEAD TO CIVIL UNREST - SPAIN EXAMPLE

Leisure Party, 1999; Beyond the Work Ethic http://freespace.virgin.net/sarah.peter.nelson/menu3a.html // acs

In Europe Spain has the highest rate of unemployment which averages 23%. In regions such as Andalusia and Extremadura it is even higher with a third of the workforce out of work. Among young people too the rate is high: the latest estimates for the under-25s is over 40%. Half of the unemployed have been out of work for a year or more. At yet, if you travel around Spain people look happy and there are few protests. Politicians do not even make unemployment their top priority.