Actually, I sent this to Gail the other day.... sorry I pushed the
wrong button and sent another message she had already posted.
--
Charles Brass
Chairman
Future of Work Foundation
PO Box 122 Fairfield 3078 Australia
Ph: 61 3 9459 0244
Fax: 613 9459 0344
The mission of the Future of Work Foundation is
"to engage all Australians in creating a better future for work"
Gail
I think under netiquette rules I am too late to post a response to your
16 January invitation to get some points (though by sending this just to
you I severely restrict my actual capacity to gain points).
My approach to the issues you raise is to attempt to (re) claim the word
"work" for something more profound than "getting work done through
employment".
In all the dictionaries I have seen the first definitions of work are
related to energy, or activity and only subsequently to employment.
In my lexicon work means "any goal directed activity" and is essentially
the umbrella term for doing something.
I then use adjectives to describe particular types of work - paid work,
job work, study work, home work etc.
So, the challenge I set those who would like to create a better society
is "how do we get all the work done we want to get done in a way which
allows everyone to have a meaningful place (or words to that effect)".
Some see this as just semantic, but given the powerful hold which
economic thinking has on our collective psyche I can't see how we
achieve some of your "supposes" without beginning with this sort of
re-definition.
Now I acknowledge that this re-definition by itself doesn't actually do
anything - but it does permit some lateral thinking which might just do
the trick.
For example, to take your first point, economics behaves as if
employment is the only form of valuable work (principally because its
unit of exchange is the dollar - which is at the core of conventional
economics). Under our new lexicon the challenge becomes how to value
all work.
Well, we have employment covered.
There are also many examples of local exchange mechanisms which expand
quite considerably the range of activities for which valuable exchange
systems can be developed.
Then analysts like Jeremy Rifkin and others contemplate ways in which
goverments might use their revenue to support volunteer activity which
today also suffers from a lack of its own transferable value.
Instead of creating policy initiatives to buy more jobs, we would think
creatively about how to get all the work done which needs doing.
So, does this add anything?
--
Charles Brass
Chairman
Future of Work Foundation
PO Box 122 Fairfield 3078 Australia
Ph: 61 3 9459 0244
Fax: 613 9459 0344
The mission of the Future of Work Foundation is
"to engage all Australians in creating a better future for work"
