I don’t work. Every few months I’ll really put in the effort and throw the applications in but nobody wants to hire me at this point. I’ll get demotivated and accept my couch surfing lifestyle again. The times I have had a job, they’ve not lasted long either.
You ask my friends if I’m disabled and you’ll get mixed answers. I personally don’t see myself as such, but I am very defiant and not particularly skilled.
Many people would say I’ve “chosen” to be unemployed (I don’t see it that way, but many people do)
Do I deserve to have my needs met? Healthcare, food, water, shelter?
I think a functioning state, not the US, would assign you some sort of work. I don’t know your exact situation, but it sounds like you’re capable enough. Based on what you’re saying in this one comment at least. I’m not going to pry for details, but it’s possible that something is preventing you from completing tasks. I think whatever it is can be worked around though. Should be able to find you some way of contributing at a pace you can handle.
Unfortunately I feel this is still a slippery slope and one that also even AES haven’t been very good at handling. Who decides what is “some way of contributing”? Is community work, emotional support, spreading knowledge about a hobby, some form of art a “valid” way to “earn one’s living”? And how much of those you would have to do? What happens if you are hindered? Who decides?
I think without a post-scarcity (or severely degrowth) economy, these will stay hard to find a common ground on.
That’s even explored (and partially left to the reader) in The Dispossessed. We’re told that in the anarchist Anarres the only thing that compels anyone to work (and do anything) is the social order, but what is considered worth and valid is relative, there are artists who struggle with social pressure and unable to get their work published (this is a bit of a pre-internet plot point heh). There’s a cautionary tale of someone who wrote a play that was critical of the social structure that people dunked on so hard he was put into/volunteered to be put into an asylum, then only made conformist slop (though this is told by a character that is trying to convince the main character that there are things wrong with the social structure)
Who “really can’t work” in your opinion?
I don’t work. Every few months I’ll really put in the effort and throw the applications in but nobody wants to hire me at this point. I’ll get demotivated and accept my couch surfing lifestyle again. The times I have had a job, they’ve not lasted long either.
You ask my friends if I’m disabled and you’ll get mixed answers. I personally don’t see myself as such, but I am very defiant and not particularly skilled.
Many people would say I’ve “chosen” to be unemployed (I don’t see it that way, but many people do)
Do I deserve to have my needs met? Healthcare, food, water, shelter?
I think a functioning state, not the US, would assign you some sort of work. I don’t know your exact situation, but it sounds like you’re capable enough. Based on what you’re saying in this one comment at least. I’m not going to pry for details, but it’s possible that something is preventing you from completing tasks. I think whatever it is can be worked around though. Should be able to find you some way of contributing at a pace you can handle.
Unfortunately I feel this is still a slippery slope and one that also even AES haven’t been very good at handling. Who decides what is “some way of contributing”? Is community work, emotional support, spreading knowledge about a hobby, some form of art a “valid” way to “earn one’s living”? And how much of those you would have to do? What happens if you are hindered? Who decides?
I think without a post-scarcity (or severely degrowth) economy, these will stay hard to find a common ground on.
That’s even explored (and partially left to the reader) in The Dispossessed. We’re told that in the anarchist Anarres the only thing that compels anyone to work (and do anything) is the social order, but what is considered worth and valid is relative, there are artists who struggle with social pressure and unable to get their work published (this is a bit of a pre-internet plot point heh). There’s a cautionary tale of someone who wrote a play that was critical of the social structure that people dunked on so hard he was put into/volunteered to be put into an asylum, then only made conformist slop (though this is told by a character that is trying to convince the main character that there are things wrong with the social structure)
“From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”