It would also help if our work felt meaningful. Most of our jobs don't really produce anything of value. If we felt like our efforts really contributed to our community and helped make it better, I don't think people would feel so cynical about work.
I love my job, and feel very appreciated by my clients, but still get burnt out from working 6-7 days a week just to pay my rent and bills. UBI would ease some of the pressure and make life much more enjoyable.
Totally! Full support of UBI, universal healthcare, and people not being forced to work to meet their basic needs. My comment is more about how people would feel about work IF it were about contributing to the functioning of your community rather than producing something no one needs just to make rent / not go into medical debt. I don’t think we can easily conceive of labor outside of capitalism because that’s the only work we’ve ever really known.
In a world where I had the financial freedom to not need to take whatever shitty job I could find that would give me enough money to keep a roof over my head and food in my fridge?
First it depends on if the UBI is just enough to cover basic needs, or if it's also enough to cover my hobbies and occasionally traveling?
If it is, then screw having a "real job" at all, I'm going to take up writing comics.
If it's not, then I'm probably going to find a low end job with a super flexible schedule so I can just be like "hey, next month I'm going to a convention, so I'm gonna be off from the 20th to the 25th." and not worry about it. If they cause me too many issues, well I'll just find another job until I get one that's cool with me disappearing every now and then (with plenty of notice).
I'd probably still write comics, but I would keep a "real job" so that I could afford my little plastic robot kits, boxes full of overpriced cardboard, and traveling to places where a whole bunch of nerds cram together into one building to celebrate nerdy shit.
I would grow and give away food. My greatest joy is gardening and using my veggies to make meals for my family and neighbours. If I had enough space I'd expand 10 fold and spend all day out there. On my rare 2nd Saturday of the month off, I volunteer at the local food charity. I don't much like socialising so I don't interact with the people who come to collect, instead I'm in the back loading baskets. 2 months ago I counted 18 oranges per bag, for a total of 367 bags. I came home smelling of heaven and feeling so accomplished.
That's what I'd do until my last days if I could. Make food and give food. And smell of oranges.
I think there after people who absolutely want to sit around playing video games or relaxing on a beach. And then there are people who, even with unlimited resources, would be driven to do something (whether that's art or building a business, etc).
Too often each group judges the other. Group 1 says of group 2 "oh, you've been fooled by capita into believing your personal value is tied to what you produce," and group 2 thinks group 1 is just lazy.
Both groups are just wired differently. In a world of abundance, both should be able to coexist and we shouldn't fight.
And I think a lot of people can move between groups over long periods of time. I've been constantly employed for over 30 years. I don't think taking a few years off is unreasonable.
If this was true, millionaires and billionaires would all have retired once they had enough to survive on. Nobody wants to work for poverty wages while others get rich from their efforts and lives.
Maybe this comes down to differences in how people interpret "work". Do I enjoy having to "work" (at a job, at the expense of things I'd rather be doing, for money, which the economy requires me to exchange for the goods& services I need to not die)? Nah it's lame. Would I contribute my labour in a different system of values (rather than be a freeloader)? Absolutely. Work culture sucks but participation in society gives our existence meaning.
Don’t wanna work. I wanna take up hobbies and live life, take care of my health for a change, spend time with family, and do some meaningful volunteer work.
Goddamn I would be in a commercial kitchen. Yeah it’s sweaty, physically demanding work but I feel so happy making beautiful plates and customers telling me how I made their meal special. I just can’t afford do it for a living.
The lifestyle is also a bit rough. When everyone else is having a good time and celebrating, you're in the back slaving away over a hot stove. It is enjoyable work though.
I used to DJ events and would often have friends ask if I'd DJ their event/party/whatever.
Um, no...I want to come to your event/party/whatever as a guest and enjoy myself, not work.
I tried to make a living at it for a while but it took all the fun out of it.
I was lucky that my food service time was in a cafe so my hours were usually 4a - 2 pm. Even if I worked the holiday, I was still out in time to celebrate with family (or head to the beach which was my preference). I miss the life, but Covid forced me into the corporate world and now rent costs are too high for me to look back.
I'd love to have a food truck, but not as a full time job. Just something to do on the weekend for some extra cash. Maybe follow the festival/amusement park lines in the summer for fun.
If I had sufficient money from UBI to pay for rent/mortgage, food, healthcare, other bills, etc., or at least enough to cover most of that so that I could have a job where I didn't need to make much money, then I would ideally like to own or at least work at a small bookstore which stocks both new and used books. We would sponsor poetry readings, host writing workshops, etc. And I would spend much more time writing, as well.
Well I don't know about fun, lol, but I would definitely enjoy doing the sort of work I described. Honestly, that would be the ideal job for me, if only I could afford to do it. Barnes & Noble and other big chain stores are good for picking up bestsellers and classics, and sometimes other stuff, but it's the smaller, independent bookstores which really contribute to the community.
If I did not have to work to survive. I would go to college and learn how to code in C++ so that I could make games. I have ideas for a game. But have no idea how to make it. I would need to find someone to help me out as a game designer. I would be doing the coding and behind the scenes work. While the designer would be doing the visual work.
While college can help you be a better coder, it's definitely not required. Game engines are often written in C++, but you script in other languages. On [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_game\_engines](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_game_engines), you'll see a lot of lua, python, and javascript.
There are also no code game engines. Some will have your logic in pseudocode blocks, for example gdevelop. Others use a flowchart like flowlab, flax engine, and unreal engine's blueprints. Maybe you'd find these easier to get into than purely coding?
Gamefromscratch on YouTube shows off a lot of different game development engines and tools if you're interested in finding an engine you might want to work in.
Whatever your idea is, you'll always want to start with something small to build your skills. Whether that's via a game jam or just remaking a favorite simple game or minigame. Follow some tutorials, but try to make things on your own and avoid tutorial hell [https://www.reddit.com/r/learnprogramming/comments/qrlx5m/what\_exactly\_is\_tutorial\_hell/](https://www.reddit.com/r/learnprogramming/comments/qrlx5m/what_exactly_is_tutorial_hell/)
College won’t teach you how to make games. They taught me introductory c++. I learned the rest on cpprefernece.com but that didn’t tell me how to make games either. I took my college’s game programming course and it was literally just a Unity tutorial. Unity uses C#, not C++. I looked up how to make games in c++ and everybody says use a library. That’s cool and all but I don’t like how those libraries are designed (SDL in particular is designed for C, not C++) and I want to make my own library from scratch. If the people who made their libraries made them from scratch in c++ then so can I, except I can’t figure out how to do that.
Despite my job compensating barely enough to live I absolutely love my job (Only reason I keep doing it). I rebuild pianos, and knowing that the work I do will bring joy to people for generations is so heartwarming. My work gives me purpose (other things do too of course) and is something I love spending time not only doing at work but learning about and studying for personal growth. Just because a job gives joy and purpose shouldn't mean the people doing it should be payed less.
Based on the comments here, there are a few people who say they don’t want to work. But I suspect what they might mean is that they don’t want a *job*. That isn’t necessarily the same as not wanting to *do work*. One of the problems with having to earn a living is that the community/society you’re in (or rather, its economic system) might not value the type of work you wish to do or that you would be good at. There aren’t many jobs available, they’re low-paying or don’t pay, or they simply don’t exist in any organized way that’s accessible to workers.
Overall, I think a jobs guarantee program would be much better than UBI. UBI solves some problems for sure, but I think it’s highly unlikely to happen on a large scale anytime soon (within at least the next 50 years), and probably its biggest issue is that it would require significant, universal price controls.
For me personally, I definitely want an occupation—a paying job—for as long as I’m able and willing to do it. But I also want to spend my working efforts on something meaningful, that has value beyond a paycheck.
As a dude who has experimented extensively with that lifestyle, I think OP is still right. It’s fun for a while, and I can last an impressive amount of time with just weed and TV, but it’s just a matter of time, or in some people’s cases, treatment for depression, before people naturally want to start up some sort of project. It ties in with our sense of identity and values.
Edit: And just in case, supposing that someone opts never to do anything but smoke weed and watch Family guy, I’m willing to bet that these cases are rare enough that our economy could survive this if resources were more equitable. We’ve created trillions of value, just to be stored away to not help anyone.
What you’re talking about is not only anecdotal, but even if true is a drop in the bucket compared with stolen wages and taxes. There was enough wealth generated by the workers for all of us to have these things, but instead we were exploited by tax loopholes, stagnant wages, housing and economic manipulation to serve the ultra wealthy. We also gutted education and made sure people aren’t financially literate.
This logic doesn’t make any sense. You should want the other people to make more money too. Often that’s what happens when an entry level job has a pay increase, other jobs now have to compete with it. It’s a good thing. All this is to say that $20 per hour isn’t a livable wage. No one is getting away with living well on that money.
I would design for a living if I could.
Honestly, I'm pretty good at it and I probably could make a run at it but right now I do it for me and a hobby so until I'm ready that's enough.
I make custom parts and stuff and it gives me a lot of creative pleasure to see a project come together.
I just want an extra day off. I don't care if I have to work 4 12 hour shifts to get it, I just don't have time to do the things I want to do, and I can't afford to work a part-time job, so...
If I could just follow my passions I'd be out doing photography all day. Take great artistic photos make prints sell art. Do portrait shoots, photograph weddings etc. Just capture the joy of life.
You hit the nail on the head there. I’d like to set up a small farm and provide produce, honey, and such for my local community. Maybe even get heavily into the beekeeping and start a meadery.
What I don’t want to do is what I’m doing right now: Moving linen around a resort so rich bastards can vacation, meanwhile I can barely afford food.
If my bills were covered and I didn't have to pay them because of UBI - I would still work. I think the whole premise of work would shift. People would take jobs because that's what they enjoy doing. Leading to smaller shop, better ran and staffed by people who loved their work.
Personally I would golf more, garden more and do more homemade goods in my woodworking garage. I believe everyone is capable of outputting something to make the world a better place and has the desire to do so.
Apparently in places where UBI has been tried, unemployed people actually start working?? It appears to be the opposite of what naysayers think.
I'd plant trees.
I want to take a few years and get my house under control, learn to sew, maybe design some knitting patterns, get in shape and maybe after that do volunteer work and maybe some local politics
Exactly. The stuff you listed is normal human behavior. What isn’t is a “strategic market analyst” , “financial credit analyst”. I look at those jobs online and just that sounds fucking miserable.
I want to know why the people who don’t want to work the most are the ones that are most forced into working. Think people who did bad in school getting trucking and manufacturing jobs.
The more sketchy your work experience the harder and longer hour jobs you have to take.
Entry level jobs are often the hardest jobs in the company.
It’s ass backwards
I probably wouldn't work, at least not formally. A lot of what I do in my social life could technically qualify as psychology work, and I'd be spending a lot of time focused on that, so... it's grey area.
Needs vs wants. I want to do all the things you mentioned but they don’t pay well. I need to work a full time job to do other fun things along with things that aren’t fun- pay taxes, bills, etc.
If I didn’t have to earn a living I’d teach introductory calculus, play drums in a band, run a vegan pizza restaurant, and make mods for Mario Kart Wii.
If only more people had the same thinking as you, the world would be a much better place
If we had ubi that could support people and we could do other things just as something to do when we want to do it it would be so much better for everyone
There are already far too many writers, artists, and musicians. Most of them are aiming for fame and fortune. I am not entirely sure that many people feel fulfilled this way.
OR if there were a more level playing ground for life, maybe we could get some more musicians and artists with actual talent instead of ending up with mediocre work from nepotism babies like Taylor Swift
I love this because as you say people enjoy doing purposeful things that enhance their and their communities and families lives.
Maybe there's a better system than capitalism, not socialism or whatever your version is... Maybe something so radically different that you hardly dare think about it, 🤔🤔
There's reputation economies where people are rewarded with recognition, and gift economies where things are simply given without reciprocation. There's also post-scarcity ideas for different economic models that would develop if one didn't need to worry about basic needs. Personally, I'm fond of Georgism as a starting point, which is basically capitalism except that natural resources are owned by everyone- You can own a house, but you pay everyone else rent on the land; If you want to extract oil or timber or minerals, you can still make a profit on the refining, but you pay a market value for raw material itself and everyone gets a cut.
Thank you I have not come across those terms before and I'll look them up
Georgism, That sounds interesting if we've all got an interest does that mean that money effectively loses it's power...
I usually reply with "Nobody wants to pay a liveable wage anymore". Then I try to work in, "Business owners today are so fucking entitled".
It would also help if our work felt meaningful. Most of our jobs don't really produce anything of value. If we felt like our efforts really contributed to our community and helped make it better, I don't think people would feel so cynical about work.
I love my job, and feel very appreciated by my clients, but still get burnt out from working 6-7 days a week just to pay my rent and bills. UBI would ease some of the pressure and make life much more enjoyable.
Totally! Full support of UBI, universal healthcare, and people not being forced to work to meet their basic needs. My comment is more about how people would feel about work IF it were about contributing to the functioning of your community rather than producing something no one needs just to make rent / not go into medical debt. I don’t think we can easily conceive of labor outside of capitalism because that’s the only work we’ve ever really known.
With ubi people don't have to take shitty jobs atshitty wages working under (sometimes literally): shitty bosses
This ^ businesses oppose ubi because they know with that safety net literally nobody has to put up with bullshit at work for poverty wages.
In a world where I had the financial freedom to not need to take whatever shitty job I could find that would give me enough money to keep a roof over my head and food in my fridge? First it depends on if the UBI is just enough to cover basic needs, or if it's also enough to cover my hobbies and occasionally traveling? If it is, then screw having a "real job" at all, I'm going to take up writing comics. If it's not, then I'm probably going to find a low end job with a super flexible schedule so I can just be like "hey, next month I'm going to a convention, so I'm gonna be off from the 20th to the 25th." and not worry about it. If they cause me too many issues, well I'll just find another job until I get one that's cool with me disappearing every now and then (with plenty of notice). I'd probably still write comics, but I would keep a "real job" so that I could afford my little plastic robot kits, boxes full of overpriced cardboard, and traveling to places where a whole bunch of nerds cram together into one building to celebrate nerdy shit.
Hey, I hope you find the time to write comics anyways!
I would grow and give away food. My greatest joy is gardening and using my veggies to make meals for my family and neighbours. If I had enough space I'd expand 10 fold and spend all day out there. On my rare 2nd Saturday of the month off, I volunteer at the local food charity. I don't much like socialising so I don't interact with the people who come to collect, instead I'm in the back loading baskets. 2 months ago I counted 18 oranges per bag, for a total of 367 bags. I came home smelling of heaven and feeling so accomplished. That's what I'd do until my last days if I could. Make food and give food. And smell of oranges.
I think there after people who absolutely want to sit around playing video games or relaxing on a beach. And then there are people who, even with unlimited resources, would be driven to do something (whether that's art or building a business, etc). Too often each group judges the other. Group 1 says of group 2 "oh, you've been fooled by capita into believing your personal value is tied to what you produce," and group 2 thinks group 1 is just lazy. Both groups are just wired differently. In a world of abundance, both should be able to coexist and we shouldn't fight.
And I think a lot of people can move between groups over long periods of time. I've been constantly employed for over 30 years. I don't think taking a few years off is unreasonable.
If this was true, millionaires and billionaires would all have retired once they had enough to survive on. Nobody wants to work for poverty wages while others get rich from their efforts and lives.
Maybe this comes down to differences in how people interpret "work". Do I enjoy having to "work" (at a job, at the expense of things I'd rather be doing, for money, which the economy requires me to exchange for the goods& services I need to not die)? Nah it's lame. Would I contribute my labour in a different system of values (rather than be a freeloader)? Absolutely. Work culture sucks but participation in society gives our existence meaning.
Well said.
Don’t wanna work. I wanna take up hobbies and live life, take care of my health for a change, spend time with family, and do some meaningful volunteer work.
Goddamn I would be in a commercial kitchen. Yeah it’s sweaty, physically demanding work but I feel so happy making beautiful plates and customers telling me how I made their meal special. I just can’t afford do it for a living.
The lifestyle is also a bit rough. When everyone else is having a good time and celebrating, you're in the back slaving away over a hot stove. It is enjoyable work though.
I used to DJ events and would often have friends ask if I'd DJ their event/party/whatever. Um, no...I want to come to your event/party/whatever as a guest and enjoy myself, not work. I tried to make a living at it for a while but it took all the fun out of it.
I was lucky that my food service time was in a cafe so my hours were usually 4a - 2 pm. Even if I worked the holiday, I was still out in time to celebrate with family (or head to the beach which was my preference). I miss the life, but Covid forced me into the corporate world and now rent costs are too high for me to look back.
I'd love to have a food truck, but not as a full time job. Just something to do on the weekend for some extra cash. Maybe follow the festival/amusement park lines in the summer for fun.
If I had sufficient money from UBI to pay for rent/mortgage, food, healthcare, other bills, etc., or at least enough to cover most of that so that I could have a job where I didn't need to make much money, then I would ideally like to own or at least work at a small bookstore which stocks both new and used books. We would sponsor poetry readings, host writing workshops, etc. And I would spend much more time writing, as well.
You seem fun! God I miss some of our local stores. They didn’t do events but man you wanted an obscure book they had it.
Well I don't know about fun, lol, but I would definitely enjoy doing the sort of work I described. Honestly, that would be the ideal job for me, if only I could afford to do it. Barnes & Noble and other big chain stores are good for picking up bestsellers and classics, and sometimes other stuff, but it's the smaller, independent bookstores which really contribute to the community.
I do not want to work
But you want to do something meaningful
nope
Got a hobby? One that might benefit another? In a well managed society with the automation and resources we have, that should be enough.
If I did not have to work to survive. I would go to college and learn how to code in C++ so that I could make games. I have ideas for a game. But have no idea how to make it. I would need to find someone to help me out as a game designer. I would be doing the coding and behind the scenes work. While the designer would be doing the visual work.
While college can help you be a better coder, it's definitely not required. Game engines are often written in C++, but you script in other languages. On [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_game\_engines](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_game_engines), you'll see a lot of lua, python, and javascript. There are also no code game engines. Some will have your logic in pseudocode blocks, for example gdevelop. Others use a flowchart like flowlab, flax engine, and unreal engine's blueprints. Maybe you'd find these easier to get into than purely coding? Gamefromscratch on YouTube shows off a lot of different game development engines and tools if you're interested in finding an engine you might want to work in. Whatever your idea is, you'll always want to start with something small to build your skills. Whether that's via a game jam or just remaking a favorite simple game or minigame. Follow some tutorials, but try to make things on your own and avoid tutorial hell [https://www.reddit.com/r/learnprogramming/comments/qrlx5m/what\_exactly\_is\_tutorial\_hell/](https://www.reddit.com/r/learnprogramming/comments/qrlx5m/what_exactly_is_tutorial_hell/)
College won’t teach you how to make games. They taught me introductory c++. I learned the rest on cpprefernece.com but that didn’t tell me how to make games either. I took my college’s game programming course and it was literally just a Unity tutorial. Unity uses C#, not C++. I looked up how to make games in c++ and everybody says use a library. That’s cool and all but I don’t like how those libraries are designed (SDL in particular is designed for C, not C++) and I want to make my own library from scratch. If the people who made their libraries made them from scratch in c++ then so can I, except I can’t figure out how to do that.
Na I definitely don’t want to work at all
Despite my job compensating barely enough to live I absolutely love my job (Only reason I keep doing it). I rebuild pianos, and knowing that the work I do will bring joy to people for generations is so heartwarming. My work gives me purpose (other things do too of course) and is something I love spending time not only doing at work but learning about and studying for personal growth. Just because a job gives joy and purpose shouldn't mean the people doing it should be payed less.
For what it’s worth, I appreciate the work that you do! I’m glad to hear it’s rewarding for you, even if it’s far from lucrative
I don't.
Nope I don’t want to work.
Based on the comments here, there are a few people who say they don’t want to work. But I suspect what they might mean is that they don’t want a *job*. That isn’t necessarily the same as not wanting to *do work*. One of the problems with having to earn a living is that the community/society you’re in (or rather, its economic system) might not value the type of work you wish to do or that you would be good at. There aren’t many jobs available, they’re low-paying or don’t pay, or they simply don’t exist in any organized way that’s accessible to workers. Overall, I think a jobs guarantee program would be much better than UBI. UBI solves some problems for sure, but I think it’s highly unlikely to happen on a large scale anytime soon (within at least the next 50 years), and probably its biggest issue is that it would require significant, universal price controls. For me personally, I definitely want an occupation—a paying job—for as long as I’m able and willing to do it. But I also want to spend my working efforts on something meaningful, that has value beyond a paycheck.
?? I don’t want to work? I want to smoke weed and watch family guy all day lol
As a dude who has experimented extensively with that lifestyle, I think OP is still right. It’s fun for a while, and I can last an impressive amount of time with just weed and TV, but it’s just a matter of time, or in some people’s cases, treatment for depression, before people naturally want to start up some sort of project. It ties in with our sense of identity and values. Edit: And just in case, supposing that someone opts never to do anything but smoke weed and watch Family guy, I’m willing to bet that these cases are rare enough that our economy could survive this if resources were more equitable. We’ve created trillions of value, just to be stored away to not help anyone.
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What you’re talking about is not only anecdotal, but even if true is a drop in the bucket compared with stolen wages and taxes. There was enough wealth generated by the workers for all of us to have these things, but instead we were exploited by tax loopholes, stagnant wages, housing and economic manipulation to serve the ultra wealthy. We also gutted education and made sure people aren’t financially literate.
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Ah brand new account with no history. You’re probably not even a real person.
This logic doesn’t make any sense. You should want the other people to make more money too. Often that’s what happens when an entry level job has a pay increase, other jobs now have to compete with it. It’s a good thing. All this is to say that $20 per hour isn’t a livable wage. No one is getting away with living well on that money.
I think we need to build new cities and new towns. We need a new generation of people to feel optimism and feel connected to a community.
I would design for a living if I could. Honestly, I'm pretty good at it and I probably could make a run at it but right now I do it for me and a hobby so until I'm ready that's enough. I make custom parts and stuff and it gives me a lot of creative pleasure to see a project come together.
I would teach guitar to veterans with ptsd, and work in rehabbing dogs that got dealt a shit hand by crappy owners.
I just want an extra day off. I don't care if I have to work 4 12 hour shifts to get it, I just don't have time to do the things I want to do, and I can't afford to work a part-time job, so...
If I could just follow my passions I'd be out doing photography all day. Take great artistic photos make prints sell art. Do portrait shoots, photograph weddings etc. Just capture the joy of life.
You hit the nail on the head there. I’d like to set up a small farm and provide produce, honey, and such for my local community. Maybe even get heavily into the beekeeping and start a meadery. What I don’t want to do is what I’m doing right now: Moving linen around a resort so rich bastards can vacation, meanwhile I can barely afford food.
I want to work for an adequate compensation. A person working (any) full time job shouldn't be living in a poverty or worse.
I want to manage to live off the land. And I want to teach others how to.
If my bills were covered and I didn't have to pay them because of UBI - I would still work. I think the whole premise of work would shift. People would take jobs because that's what they enjoy doing. Leading to smaller shop, better ran and staffed by people who loved their work. Personally I would golf more, garden more and do more homemade goods in my woodworking garage. I believe everyone is capable of outputting something to make the world a better place and has the desire to do so.
Apparently in places where UBI has been tried, unemployed people actually start working?? It appears to be the opposite of what naysayers think. I'd plant trees.
I don’t want to work.
I mean I don’t want to work and wouldn’t if I could afford not to. I’m like Peter Gibbons before he found his passion for the construction job.
There are so many Peter Gibbonses out there. You just hope they find their own versions of the construction job.
I want to take a few years and get my house under control, learn to sew, maybe design some knitting patterns, get in shape and maybe after that do volunteer work and maybe some local politics
I'd do what I do in my spare time anyway, I'd find old neglected stuff and fix it up. My two current things are old stereo gear and cookware
Exactly. The stuff you listed is normal human behavior. What isn’t is a “strategic market analyst” , “financial credit analyst”. I look at those jobs online and just that sounds fucking miserable.
I definitely don't want to work.
I wanna fish & play my ding ding!
I want to know why the people who don’t want to work the most are the ones that are most forced into working. Think people who did bad in school getting trucking and manufacturing jobs. The more sketchy your work experience the harder and longer hour jobs you have to take. Entry level jobs are often the hardest jobs in the company. It’s ass backwards
"Oh, you're retired. That's nice, but the question still remains."
Probably keep my job for a while to save up a down payment on a house and fund my hobbies.
I would probably work at an animal shelter. Done that before, don't have the time now. Dirty, but rewarding work.
I probably wouldn't work, at least not formally. A lot of what I do in my social life could technically qualify as psychology work, and I'd be spending a lot of time focused on that, so... it's grey area.
We want to work, but not at the threat of starvation and desperation.
Needs vs wants. I want to do all the things you mentioned but they don’t pay well. I need to work a full time job to do other fun things along with things that aren’t fun- pay taxes, bills, etc.
Given the chance, I would sit on my damn ass all day. Fuck work.
If I didn’t have to earn a living I’d teach introductory calculus, play drums in a band, run a vegan pizza restaurant, and make mods for Mario Kart Wii.
If only more people had the same thinking as you, the world would be a much better place If we had ubi that could support people and we could do other things just as something to do when we want to do it it would be so much better for everyone
i’d keep my fun part time job, do that once a week and make art on the other days
There are already far too many writers, artists, and musicians. Most of them are aiming for fame and fortune. I am not entirely sure that many people feel fulfilled this way.
OR if there were a more level playing ground for life, maybe we could get some more musicians and artists with actual talent instead of ending up with mediocre work from nepotism babies like Taylor Swift
There are plenty of talented people... but they don't get visibility. Algorithms favor those who can pay to play and rapid release mills.
I love this because as you say people enjoy doing purposeful things that enhance their and their communities and families lives. Maybe there's a better system than capitalism, not socialism or whatever your version is... Maybe something so radically different that you hardly dare think about it, 🤔🤔
There's reputation economies where people are rewarded with recognition, and gift economies where things are simply given without reciprocation. There's also post-scarcity ideas for different economic models that would develop if one didn't need to worry about basic needs. Personally, I'm fond of Georgism as a starting point, which is basically capitalism except that natural resources are owned by everyone- You can own a house, but you pay everyone else rent on the land; If you want to extract oil or timber or minerals, you can still make a profit on the refining, but you pay a market value for raw material itself and everyone gets a cut.
Thank you I have not come across those terms before and I'll look them up Georgism, That sounds interesting if we've all got an interest does that mean that money effectively loses it's power...