Surprised there have been no comments so far - an extremely fascinating essay raising many points.
One thing struck me (a retired old geezer) - there seemed to be no mention of purely economic and social implications of a less-work culture. I've never read any descriptions of Utopian scenarios which tell how people could actually afford them; how do they pay for goods and services, save for pensions, pay taxes, send their children to school? Cash from the "state", perhaps barter - I don't think so!
The comment "[t]hese are today’s realities of work. Much is underpaid or unfairly compensated" surely reflects the inequalities of the present economic system; begs many questions which really do need to be addressed.
I used to tell my students that they were actually "at work" - they'd laugh, but I said they were learning to learn, and then applying that learning appropriately in the future. Classwork provided the tools. That's work, pal!
Thinking about workers in the past, and in my experience, such as it is, there was a lot of basic satisfaction in learning your job and being able to apply it, whether engineering (apprenticeships), journalism, teaching, milkman, chef, even labourer (they had their own codes etc) and, of course, philosopher.
Pure satisfaction at doing a job seems to be at a premium today; shame.
Surprised there have been no comments so far - an extremely fascinating essay raising many points.
One thing struck me (a retired old geezer) - there seemed to be no mention of purely economic and social implications of a less-work culture. I've never read any descriptions of Utopian scenarios which tell how people could actually afford them; how do they pay for goods and services, save for pensions, pay taxes, send their children to school? Cash from the "state", perhaps barter - I don't think so!
The comment "[t]hese are today’s realities of work. Much is underpaid or unfairly compensated" surely reflects the inequalities of the present economic system; begs many questions which really do need to be addressed.
I used to tell my students that they were actually "at work" - they'd laugh, but I said they were learning to learn, and then applying that learning appropriately in the future. Classwork provided the tools. That's work, pal!
Thinking about workers in the past, and in my experience, such as it is, there was a lot of basic satisfaction in learning your job and being able to apply it, whether engineering (apprenticeships), journalism, teaching, milkman, chef, even labourer (they had their own codes etc) and, of course, philosopher.
Pure satisfaction at doing a job seems to be at a premium today; shame.