Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Get a Job!

Deep down inside people like to work. OK, some people are lazy and or some people just hate the work place environment. It isn't up to US to judge or impose our values on people.Capitalist Parties and politics offer no alternatives to the work place. But maybe, in a society that is losing it jobs we can create our own. What we need froma government is the creation of an economic democracy. To list the few, here is what we can do to endeavor when The Government works.Democratic Socialism Profit-sharing Cooperative Worker Cooperative Consumers' cooperative Monetary reform Guaranteed minimum income Social Credit Social Economy Industrial democracy Participatory economics Workers' control Workers' self-management Workplace democracy
‘The Small Business administration can be augmented into work creation so can government agencies by introducing Public Work Programs. Also, the Universal Income can provide self employment. One cam grow their own career in there own Career Path with out falling into poverty.
There are also alternatives employment and growth sectors as Public work, municipal and public enterprise. Alternative to entrepreneur economies should be developed. There is a difference between a job and work. People on the job are not always working. In some cases economists had noticed after observation. Jobs are nothing more than people management. It is way to corral society. In a real social society people function best when they have meaningful jobs. Jobs with justice. When was the last time we heard politicians speak of Democratic ESOPs, or Worker own Co-operatives?There are many ideas out there and they are all being ignored. I am supplying a list of books that will also help out in our quest for freedom.
The system doesn’t work for many reason because the essence of human economics and humanness are ignored. It is about corporate welfare, wealth maintenance, power brokering, and the disposability of lower level human beings.In a Capitalist Society people are not human.


Beating The System: The Next American Revolution by Larry RothStraightforward and practical treatise on life without a job, filled with encouraging personal anecdotes and humor. Roth asks us to re-evaluate our lives and gives us tools to live a happy, fulfilling life outside the realm of wage slavery. As a bonus, he includes several essays, for example, by Edith Flowers Kilgo ("Can You Afford Your Job?") and Ed Haugland ("Ditching the Nine to Five Routine")."If you want to quit your job and never have to formally work again, here is a complete lifestyle planner for it." - Workaholics Anonymous"...the story of his own exit from corporate America and a map for others who want to find their way out of the madness of the modern American workplace as well." - www.mind-like-water.com

The End of Work: The Decline of the Global Labor Force by Jeremy Rifkin (critique of the book, by Bob Black) * Also see a summary of Rifkin's ideasWhy Work? Arguments for the Leisure Society Ed. by Vernon Richards (including essay by Bertrand Russell)Reclaiming Work: Beyond The Wage-Based Societyby Andre GorzWe are very encouraged that people are writing books like this. We sorely need them. Don't miss this one! It's written in accessible language, and uncluttered with dry academic jargon or stale ideas. Also see his book Paths To Paradise: On The Liberation From Work.

The Right to Useful Unemploymentby Ivan IllichWe love the title! It's what it is all about. Here's a blurb on the book from the AK Press catalog:"Forget a guaranteed job; how about a guaranteed income? If more mechanization is putting more & more people out of work and generating super profits, why do we need to work longer hours?"

The Jobless Future: Sci-Tech and the Dogma of Work by Stanley Aronowitz & William DiFazioDeconstructs the widespread idea that a high-tech economy will lead to more leisure and high-paying jobs for anyone who wants them. Very heavy on theory, light on practical guidance, and full of academic jargon, but the ideas are still worth checking out. "Contrary to the ideologically conditioned theory ..... recipients of guaranteed annual income who are relieved of most obligations to engage in labor do not fall apart.

"Post-Work: The Wages of CybernationEd. by Stanley Aronowitz and Jonathan Cutler

The Overworked Americanby Juliet Schor

Selling the Work Ethic: From Puritan Pulpit to Corporate PRby Sharon BederFrom the back cover: "Few people today can imagine a society that does not revolve around work. How did paid work come to be so central to our lives? Why is it that so many people wouldn't know what to do with themselves or who they were if they did not have their jobs?" Good questions. Pick up her book and find out her answers!The Processed World AnthologyEd. by Chris Carlsson with Mark Leger"The leading anti-work journal..."--J. Hughes, co-editor, Eco-Socialist just LOVE :
Processed World magazine, and the Processed World anthology is a whole book of highlights from years of great, subversive, humorous stuff. 'Nuff said. Highly recommended! Zerowork: The Anti-Work AnthologyEd. by Bob Black and Tad KepleyIncludes
"The Original Affluent Society" by Marshall Sahlins

Why Work? A Case For Fundamental Change by Peter Merry "Why are we working - for whom and to what ends?" This UK-based brief publication, available online and also from the Center for Human Ecology in Scotland, analyzes present employment structures and patterns across Europe in its call for more balanced, human-needs-centered patterns of livelihood. Merry's thesis on the future of work was published as a book under the same title.

Seven Myths About Work by Molly Scott CatoSays the author, "There is so much to say about work. What inspired me to pull together this short book was my belief that much of the unhappiness in modern society is caused by work, or more precisely by work as it has been arranged in the present industrial system." This book was published by GreenAudit in 1996 and sold out. A newer edition has been issued. Check out the publisher's web site for a brief excerpt from the book.

Wages & The Working Day by John KeracherThe Joy of Not Working: A Book for the Retired, Unemployed, and Overworkedby Ernie J. ZelinskiAn excellent, best-selling, well-written and savvy book on a subject that's near and dear to our hearts, and very much in the spirit of . The margins are chock full of thought-provoking quotes, Calvin & Hobbes cartoons, and amusing illustrations. We can hardly recommend it highly enough!Un-Jobbing: The Adult Liberation Handbook by Michael FoglerAt 45, Michael Fogler considers himself semi-retired. He's a husband, stay-at-home dad, workshop presenter, peace activist, and freelance musician. At the end of 1990, he and his wife left jobs for home-based lives of greater personal fulfilment. Fogler was so liberated by this change, that he decided to share his experiences and revelations in this book. Reviewed by Sarah Nelson & D.J. Swanson. Highly recommended!When Work Doesn't Work Anymore: Women, Work, and Identityby Elizabeth Perle McKennaThe System Made Me Do It! A Life Changing Approach to Office Politics by Susan M. Osborn, Ph.D.
The Liberation of Workby Folkert Wilken
Work Without End: Abandoning Shorter Hours for the Right to Workby Benjamin HunnicuttHunnicutt is a professor at the University of Iowa. Here's a sample quote from his critical article
The Left and the Future of Work: "Instead of viewing progress as transcending work, necessity and economic concerns, and far from believing that increased freedom from toil is a constituent of human progress, much of the industrial world shares the belief that work is an end in itself, the ultimate measure of progress and the definition of prosperity."
The Future of Work (set of audiocassettes)by Robert Theobald

Reworking Success by Robert Theobald
Sleepers, Wake! Technology & the Future of WorkBy Barry JonesThe Future of WorkEd. by Fred BestThe Protestant Work Ethic: The Psychology of Work Related Beliefs and Behaviorsby Adrian FurnhamFuture Work: Jobs, Self-Employment and Leisure After the Industrial Ageby James RobertsonWorking Harder Isn't Working Put Work In Its Placeboth by Bruce O'HaraThe

Hacker Ethicby Pekka HimanenThe Ideology of Workby Peter D. Anthony
Neither Work Nor LeisureA Culture Where We Don't Stop Playing When We Leave Schoolby Merrick Godhaven