> Employment contracts aside... Let's just ask ourselves, is having a job optional?
The majority of people need to work if they want to survive, that's true. So "jobs" aren't voluntary. But "a job" is. You don't have to pick plants out in a field if you don't want to. If you don't like your position, or boss, or pay, you can quit and look for work elsewhere. Or even have multiple jobs!
A slave doesn't get to say "This other company is nicer and pays better, so I'm leaving here and going there instead." But you can.
Slaves don't get to pick where they sleep, either.
Thing is, neither do most people.
SELECT TOP 1 job,residence
FROM jobs JOIN residences
WHERE jobs.pay > residences.rent
ORDER BY jobs.pay DESC, residences.rent ASC
it's common to add some qualifications like...
AND jobs.category NOT IN ('murder','prostitution')
AND residences.crime_factor < 0.4
...etc.
But that doesn't change the fact that LOTS of people believe in their hearts that they have absolutely no choice but to continue doing exactly what they are doing.
I'd hazard the guess that almost all of us have actually removed WHERE predicates because during the initial searches (back in late childhood), zero rows were returned. Predicates like
jobs.category = 'helping_people'
or
residences.climate = 'tropical'
If you are thinking that it's just not possible for everyone to have their ideal job, fine. It's not. But stop for just a second and review that survival part...
Why exactly is it so hard to survive without a job, in 2016? I mean, physically. You need air and water and food and shelter. Those are listed in decreasing order of necessary frequency.
Seems to me that the problem is rent and the social framework that enforces eviction via violence--even if the space isn't otherwise being used.
I, for one, would not die without a job--not from starvation. But I would eventually be arrested, beat up, stripped of my possessions, etc, and that would eventually lead to death. The jobless don't die--they are killed.
In those terms, we are enslaved by the existence of personal property. Or maybe by the existence of society, in general. Society's requirements force you into a certain set of paths.
> Why exactly is it so hard to survive without a job, in 2016?
Why should it not be, for a sufficiently broad definition of "job"?
Because it seems that the "survival" part could - and should - be automated away in this day and age. Just like we try and do with all the other boring stuff we don't want to do over and over and over again.
Automation is an effort multiplier, but it's not a cure-all, and it's not free. Building and maintaining the system will ultimately take some sort of time, work, or money input from people. So, if someone isn't going to somehow contribute to the input, why should they benefit from the output? And if they are contributing somehow, then isn't that a job?
Having the choice to choose which ruler you serve it's not what it seems to be. As Machiavelli wrote:
>> for men change their rulers willingly, hoping to better themselves [...] they are deceived, because they afterwards find by experience they have gone from bad to worse
The majority of people need to work if they want to survive, that's true. So "jobs" aren't voluntary. But "a job" is. You don't have to pick plants out in a field if you don't want to. If you don't like your position, or boss, or pay, you can quit and look for work elsewhere. Or even have multiple jobs!
A slave doesn't get to say "This other company is nicer and pays better, so I'm leaving here and going there instead." But you can.