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From: laura@utzoo.UUCP (Laura Creighton)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: Re: Drifting sideways into economics
Message-ID: <4039@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 7-Jul-84 07:08:44 EDT
Article-I.D.: utzoo.4039
Posted: Sat Jul  7 07:08:44 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 7-Jul-84 07:08:44 EDT
References: <610@flairvax.UUCP>, <189@mit-athena.ARPA>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 36

i have no problem with robots. I would like to see lots and lots of them.

the problem with dividing the labour around the existing work is multifold.
A pretty reasonable generalisation is that there is more thinking-work
that needs doing than there are people who either can or want to think.
If you know any gopod way to convince people who have studiously avoided
thinking whenever possible to get around to thinking, let me know. I
thought that the problem was insoluable, except in the case of children.

Moreover, the ``amount of work'' or ``amount of wealth'' around is 
not a static quantity. Every new idea may be converted into wealth
that can be counted, but unless you declare a moratorium on new ideas you
are going to have to accept that the amount of wealth is changing all the
time and can not be pinned down.

But, even assuming that it is practical, is it moral? I find the idea that
anybody is ``owed'' a job highly unethical. I would rather pay people
*not* to work than force somebody to hire somebody. I also think that
if I want to work 18 hours a day and my employer is agreeable then
I should be allowed to do exactly that. Why should my employer be forced
to put up with work done by a less competant when competant people are
available? Furthermore, in denying that employment has anything to do with
value, you are left with a void where people's sense of self-worth used
to be. Instead of feeling that people are demonstrating their value
(and increasing it) through productive and good work, you are forcing them
to look elsewhere for their sense of worth. I don't know of too many
other places where one can get a sense of self worth and (except possibly for
some hobbies and sports) they all seem very inferior to the sense of
worth one feels when one knows, deep down, that one is damn good at the
job which one is doing -- the job which pays for the items that one needs
and wants to maintain and further one's existence.

This is a rather horrible thing to do to people.

Laura Creighton
utzoo!laura