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Ed,
I feel your economic bias is coming
through. I was trained in pedagogy and child development.
Children don't have to be taught to work. It is one of their
original instructions. The problem with "work" is that the Western
model is tied not to pleasure which makes the child learn and do more work in
five years then they accomplish in the next lifetime but to drudgery and models
that are not developmental of human potential. Schools teach
children not to have fun, succeed and grow but to conform and fit within a model
that the world sees as "useful." The problem is "use" as
defined in utilitarian thought and particulate fragmentary knowledge
bases. But I've said this many times. The ultimate
usefulness is that which develops the finest human being. Anything
else is window dressing and transitory. The Aztec called it "Flowers
and Songs" Flowers are pretty and nice but disappear,
only the song exists as long as the human does. But if you are
singing everyone else's song and do not know your own then your wealth is
valueless. "Mockingbirds" Learn to value and
develop your own uniqueness. Henry Ford was demonic and sold
his soul. Redefine economics around the terms of human potential
rather than goods and services. Until then you are doomed to fail
and be annual in your recessions.
Ray Evans Harrell, artistic director
The American Masters Arts Festival Biennial
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, September 07, 2003 2:46
PM
Subject: Re: [Futurework] Workloads
Ed,
Are you advocating "From each according to
his/her abilities to each according to his/her needs?"
REH
I don't think so, Ray, though
I'm not really sure. My vision of an ideal society is one which
guarantees everyone housing of a reasonable quality, food for the family,
access to education, and access to health services. These things should
be provided as rights whether people work or not. People should not be
demeaned or stigmatized if they have to access them.
To achieve such a world, certain
values and ethics would have to be in place. Very important would be
valuing work as a contribution to society and a corresponding work ethic,
instilled from childhood. Another would be valuing human life and a
recognition that we are our brother's and sister's keepers. And, of
course, the world would have to be affordable.
I don't know if such a world is
possible, and it may be that people are too self-interested or cynical to buy
into it if it were possible. I know lots of self-interested and cynical
people and very few who put altruism and the value of their fellow man to the
forefront. By viewing my own behavior, I'm not sure of where I
personally fit in all of this. If it were to come about, it would
probably have to be imposed from the top, and I wonder if any government would
have the courage to do it without resorting to smoke and mirrors, trying to
convince people that they were getting something while giving them very
little.
Anyhow, that is where I'd like to
see things go, whether or not they ever do get there.
Ed
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, September 06, 2003 4:22
PM
Subject: Re: [Futurework]
Workloads
Ed,
Are you advocating "From each according to
his/her abilities to each according to his/her needs?"
REH
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, September 06, 2003
4:11 PM
Subject: Re: [Futurework]
Workloads
UNIFEM, the United Nation's Development Fund for Women lays out the
road to
progress in greater detail:
* Women's
share of seats in legislative bodies should reach
50%
* The ratio between girls' and boys' school
enrollment rates should be
one to one
* Average
female weekly earnings as percentage of male weekly earnings
should
equal 100%
* Women's share of paid employment in the
non-agricultural sector
should be expanded
* Men
and women should spend an equal number of hours on unpaid
housework
Political power, education, type of work all these
factors have an
influence on women's economic power....
Gail, I don't like
this. It strikes me as the tryanny of absolute equality. What
if, as may be possible, all of the women were geniuses and all of the men
morons? Or, can you think of the difficulty and fallout of a husband
and wife keeping tabs on each other to ensure that they did an equal
amount of house work? "No, no, dammit! I cooked dinner
yesterday! It's your turn!" What I would most like to see is
equal access to education, to careers, to the income hierarchy, and
everything else that people do outside the home.
When it comes to inside the
home, partners have to work it out themselves. He likes cooking; she
doesn't. Or she likes cooking; she doesn't. Or however the
household goes. What
would seem most important in the home is the kids. Neither male nor
female should feel they are restricted from becoming what they want to
because of their sex.
Ed
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, September 07, 2003
12:15 PM
Subject: [Futurework]
Workloads
Speaking of work and and
trade, here is an item posted
this AM to another list.
I'd be interested in comments. Do you
think these are reasonable objectives for the World Bank and UN? Do you
see around you or in your own life evidence of their
accomplishment?
The fourth objective of UNIFEM
gives me some trouble, at least until the third and fifth are
advanced -- otherwise it seems to me that we get wage distortions that
affect international trade, possibly reducing rather than enhancing the
general welfare. Wage inequities produced by "discrimination per
se" carry a continuing odour of slavery? Nor, I think, is the
problem confined to women but is conspicuous there and links with other
issues, e.g. caring for children, health, population,
etc.
What think you? How is the issue
developing in your own surroundings?
Gail
This Friday's NOW with Bill Moyers focused on how women are faring
in the global economy, with Vandana Shiva explaining in a live
interview how globalization increases women's workloads. For those
who missed the show, the NOW site on pbs.org http://www.pbs.org/now/ is
worth a visit. cheers, Penney Sample: Rich World, Poor
Women: Women and Work There is an old saying that you can judge a
society by the way it treats its women. In the last several decades
many world organizations have signed on to that belief making
improvements in the status of women among their highest priorities.
The World Bank's Millennium Development Goals put it broadly: "Goal
Number 3: Promote gender equality and empower women." UNIFEM, the
United Nation's Development Fund for Women lays out the road
to progress in greater detail: * Women's share
of seats in legislative bodies should reach 50% *
The ratio between girls' and boys' school enrollment rates should
be one to one * Average female weekly earnings
as percentage of male weekly earnings should equal
100% * Women's share of paid employment in the
non-agricultural sector should be expanded *
Men and women should spend an equal number of hours on unpaid
housework Political power, education, type of work all these
factors have an influence on women's economic power....
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