Posted on by Art Powell

Apparently a lot of people are blaming themselves for their own unemployment. This is sad because there is a high probability that our committment to the work ethic will make it difficult or impossible to cope humanely with the economic crisis.

I believe economics is largely about relationships and for relationships to be satisfactory they require a more or less equal two-way exchange including compassion and understanding. Too often the victims of the economic crisis are being blamed for their misfortune which is neither understanding nor compassionate. For them to blame themselves must be psychologically devastating.

Our economic problems are a result of our having consumed the most easily accessible energy and mineral resources and are aggravated by a financial system that has a built-in collapse mechanism. Those of us who have lived through and enjoyed the recent golden age of prosperity should collectively take responsibility for the crisis even though we would not be human if we had not used the resources. To blame any one group for what we have all done is to make them into scapegoats.

Our economic problems could be a lot worse than we would like to think and could lead to a population reduction up to 80 per cent. That is what the native North Americans experienced when the Europeans arrived. Of course we are exempt from that kind of disaster but there are so many things threatening our civilization and our way of life that we might be wise to think about how we can cope with a serious disaster so as to minimize human suffering.

One approach may be to look at anthropology and history. How have other cultures organized themselves and how have they organized the exchange of goods and services. This has allowed me to see that there are other ways of doing things. Sometimes those other ways are very appealing.

Our culture places too much emphasis on jobs and employment. Not only do jobs provide us with food, clothing, shelter and entertainment, they also provide us with self-identity. If one does not have a job one is a nobody and deserves to be look down upon. The proper place for such people is that famous burning garbage dump in Jerusalem known as hell.

The reality is that full employment is not a realistic expectation. The huge agricultural surplus we currently produce makes it unnecessary and our having used up the most easily accessible resources makes it impossible. We need to reorganize our economy so that all people can have the opportunity for a standard of living similar to most other people regardless of what they do with their time. This means we need to look at some sort of universal income scheme. Before we can have an income scheme we have to get over our committment to the work ethic.

To some extent we all have to take responsibility for how we live our lives within limitations. Sometimes we must live in circumstances that are beyond our control.

This blogger feels quite pessimistic about the economic future but has to recognize that people have been pessimistic about the future for millenia. On the other hand, there have been times during the millenia when pessimism has been justified. Please don’t blame the economic crisis on those people who are suffering from it.

If you liked this post your are invited to comment, press the like button and/or click one of the share buttons. If you disagree you are invited to say why in a comment. While I like the idea of sharing this platform, my personality is such that I don’t reply to many comments.

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Filed under: Economics | Tagged: agricultural surplus, Anthropology, economic crisis, Economics, energy and mineral resources, scapegoats, unemployed, work ethic |