Comment on it's a matter of motivation
bearboiblake@pawb.social 6 days agoYes, of course. If you lived in a society where everyone contributed their labor freely in return for access to all of the fruits of the labour of others, wouldn’t you be happy to work as a plumber or an electrician in that society? We work to pay our bills, but if we didn’t have bills, if everyone was just provided for, by default, why would you need to be paid to work? Why wouldn’t you want to give back to a system that gives so much benefits to you?
Some people have to dress up in a special suit and swim through raw sewage to repair a big pump - and they have to do it blindly because the sewage is opaque.
Some people have an even dirtier job: They have to clean off that guy’s shitty suit before he can take it off. They might have to do it multiple times if he needs to come out to take another look at schematics.
They do it because it pays very well. It pays very well because nobody wants to do it.
I’d do it in a heartbeat if we got to live in the world I outlined above, and so would many others, because we all want to live in a society that has functioning waste treatment facilities, and someone has to do it.
Maybe many would, but also, many would not.
In a society in which everyone can choose whatever career they want, all for the same “pay”/outcome/whatever it’s called in a moneyless society, I would bet that most people would choose not to do these things.
When the demand for such tasks outweighs the number of people who are both willing and skilled to do those jobs, what can be done to meet the demand?
Btw, I’m not asking rhetorically - I’m genuinely curious. If there isn’t enough people to serve such an important job for society, what can be done?
Again, if something really needs to get done, like repairing necessary sewer systems, then it will get done, because it needs to. Do you really think that people who have the skills to repair the water treatment plant are going to just deal with sewage backing up into their home because they don’t want to do the work?
For a more comprehensive analysis of the question, I’d direct your attention towards an anarchist FAQ. I’ll quote a few choice sections below, but the link goes into great detail, comparing and contrasting multiple approaches to handling the problem.
There are some jobs that few, if any, would enjoy (for example, collecting rubbish, processing sewage, dangerous work, etc.). So how would an anarchist society deal with it?
[…]
It would be easy to imagine a free community sharing such tasks as fairly as possible between a community’s members by, for example, allocating a few days a month to all fit members of a community to do work which no one volunteers to do. This would soon ensure that it would be done, particularly if it were part of a festival or before a party. In this way, every one shares in the unpleasant as well as pleasant tasks (and, of course, minimises the time any one individual has to spend on it). Or, for tasks which are very popular, individuals would also have to do unpleasant tasks as well. In this way, popular and unpopular tasks could balance each other out. Or such tasks could be rotated randomly by lottery. The possibilities are many and, undoubtedly, a free people will try many different ones in different areas.
[…]
Of course, no system is perfect – we are sure that not everyone will be able to do the work they enjoy the most (this is also the case under capitalism, we may add). In an anarchist society every method of ensuring that individuals pursue the work they are interested in would be investigated. If a possible solution can be found, we are sure that it will. What a free society would make sure of was that neither the capitalist market redeveloped (which ensures that the majority are marginalised into wage slavery) or a state socialist “labour army” type allocation process developed (which would ensure that free socialism did not remain free or socialist for long).
In this manner, anarchism will be able to ensure the principle of voluntary labour and free association as well as making sure that unpleasant and unwanted “work” is done. Moreover, most anarchists are sure that in a free society such requirements to encourage people to volunteer for unpleasant work will disappear over time as feelings of mutual aid and solidarity become more and more common place. Indeed, it is likely that people will gain respect for doing jobs that others might find unpleasant and so it might become “glamorous” to do such activity. Showing off to friends can be a powerful stimulus in doing any activity.
And this goober thinks people are willing to do it for the love of society.
Nah mate.
Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 6 days ago
Because you’re dealing with literal human faeces, that’s why.
bearboiblake@pawb.social 6 days ago
Okay? I’d rather do that than eat it from the rich. It’s not like you can’t wear protective equipment or anything. Heck, give me a set of coveralls and I would wade waist-deep in a septic tank on the daily in return for a society that has no homelessness, no famine, no medical debt, universal access to healthcare and education, to live in a world without pedophile billionaires and corporations constantly fucking us all over for a percentage. Do you really not see how that would be a better world?
Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 6 days ago
Even if you would be willing to do that, I doubt there would be enough to make a system like this work.
There’s a reason plumbers are so well paid.
bearboiblake@pawb.social 6 days ago
Well, you can believe whatever you want to believe, I’m not going to stop advocating for a better world just because you’re a bit squeamish.
PattyMcB@lemmy.world 6 days ago
Socialism > communism
bearboiblake@pawb.social 6 days ago
I’m an anarchist! If you haven’t heard much about anarchism before, you probably have some misconceptions about it, so I encourage you to watch the Q&Anarchy video series by Thought Slime or have a look through an Anarchist FAQ, because it’s almost definitely nothing like what you think. I personally believe that it’s the most coherent philosophy which adequately explains and addresses all of the problems which plague our society, and which holds the most promise for a path out of the inevitable cycle of the continuous rise and fall fascism that capitalism makes inevitable.