Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

>I'm saying that given the choice, those who are forced into spending their time in a way that is detrimental to themselves in any other term but economic would not do so

You cant have the fruits of labor without the labor.

People make this calculus every single day, and nearly unanimously decide that it would be more detrimental to go without the fruits of labor (especially those that must be incentivized).

It is obviously worth exploring how to make work less miserable, or better fit the interests of a worker, but that is a genuinely difficult matching an allocation problem.

A "do what you want" policy would not result in the tasks people want done getting done.

The closest equivalent to a system without transactional incentives is individual subsistence farming where one has to work for oneself so they don't die.




> A "do what you want" policy would not result in the tasks people want done getting done.

That sounds weird to me. If people want it done, they would get it done, wouldn't they? Can you maybe expand with an example?


You want fresh produce in your supermarket, but you don't want to be the person who drives around to various farmers to get their produce, the person who stocks the shelves, the person who plants and harvests the produce, etc.

(Well, I guess if you're american you don't have fresh produce in your supermarket, but the point stands.)


examples would be that people dont want to collect trash, work a the sewage treatment plant, or lumber mill.


I see, but I’m not sure if these wouldn’t get done in a “do what you want” policy. There’s even a chance that they get done better than how they are done today. People would put in resources to improve (automate, simplify, etc.) the tasks they don’t enjoy doing.




Consider applying for YC's W25 batch! Applications are open till Nov 12.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: