Re: [Futurework] The world of work

[Charles Brass]

Ray Harrell said recently:   The purpose of work in this society is two-fold:   1. to keep people busy and out of trouble and 2. to redistribute income based upon who gets the prize for being the busiest.       The first is clearly true, though I would prefer to phrase it "the purpose of work is to get done what needs doing". The second is much more fraught, but reveals just how bound up we all are with our current ways of doing things.  Income is just a convenient way to record some of the value which has been created through the doing of work.  If income captured all the value which was created (which is something no single system can do, in my opinion) then Ray might be right.  However, since income (ie dollars) only capture some of the value we need to look elsewhere for the rest. Once we do that, we will never look at work the same way again.   Incidentally, I applaud Ray's posts because he keeps reminding us of the value in the arts.  We need to recognise that this value is very hard to represent at a national level, most of it resides at a much 'lower' level (ie in the community).  Hence, a need for 'community currencies' which can recognise, capture and redistribute this value.                 Charles Brass Chairman the futures foundation PO Box 122 Fairfield  3078 Australia phone 61 3 9459 0244   the mission of the futures foundation is "...to engage all Australians in creating a better future..."