I’ve been having interesting conversations with coworkers re: “if someone doesn’t work, do they deserve to die?”

their reflexive response is usually a vehement “no,” but then we go into the nitty-gritty of deconstructing the various capitalist encouragements to work, which all carry the implicit “if you don’t do this, you won’t be able to survive” threat

people have the most difficult time with work refusers - that is, those who could physically ‘work,’ and those who can’t.

one coworker rationalizes it with redefining work - that is, some peoples’ work could be thinking, or talking to others’ (like jesus, he said)

60yr old homeless coworker thought people should work if able, but couldn’t account for how unemployment is never at 0% (so there are never enough jobs for everyone anyway)

grandma thinks people should be psychologied into wanting to work, but i explain how one work-refusing partner majored in psychology, so i don’t think that will change his mind. she rationalizes it by saying people who don’t want to work are mentally ill; i explain trying to make my partner think that he is broken makes him suicidal. grandma finds this distressing.

they all found the idea of a basic income novel, and probably impossible here.

12:15 am • 3 November 2014 • 6 notes