A new society ‑ Work and Leisure.
It is evident that Human beings since the beginning had to work to feed, clothe and house themselves in order to survive. To work is an essential part of Human life. If someone does not work, it means that someone else must be working for him.
In previous Ages, in a sparsely populated and primitive world, people could subsist individually within or without their simple socioeconomic organisms. But with the advent of Capitalism, the development of industry, complex technology, and with the appropriation of land as the personal property of a small number of people and private companies, the majority of the population has come to depend for its livelihood on finding employment within the private and public sectors of capitalist economy.
The most important requisite for Human dignity and self respect is to be able to earn one's living by one's own work and efforts within a society. Dignity and self respect are destroyed when a healthy person is forced to depend on the greed or compassion of others, on begging, stealing, etc. in order to survive.
Capitalist economy and society, except in a few countries for relatively short periods of time, has never been able to provide meaningful employment for all able bodied people.
In our modern industrial world, the process of production in every field has become a social process. No longer can an individual person stand on his own; the attitude of individualism promoted by the capitalist Media has become just an illusion for most of the population.
Every individual person depends on the others for the production of every commodity, including the necessities of life.
Everything is produced, transported, stored, distributed, etc. in different stages, by different people in different operations; Therefore, whatever affects one stage or one individual in the process of production, affects directly or indirectly everybody else.
While production has become increasingly social, performed by and affecting a great number of Human beings, the land, the factories and equipment, the materials at any stage of production, the finished products and their distribution outlets, all these are the personal private property of a small number of people, companies and corporations.
This is one of the main contradictions in capitalist economy and society. It is a non elected minority who may not have any other qualifications than business cunning and exceptional selfishness, and not the elected government, that in the end, by their right to their own property and their control over production, decide on economic and social policies which affect the great majority of the population.
In their decisions, the increase of their personal property and wealth is their main motivation; the benefit to the rest of society is incidental. The following are obvious facts:
Everybody depends on his own or somebody else's work for a living;
At present, economic production has become a complex social process while the means of production and the products remain the private property of a minority;
In a modern industrial society we all depend from each other's performance, but we are under the illusion of being independent; moreover, a great number of people are being denied the right to work and, therefore, the right to a meaningful existence.
In the new society every person should have the right and the duty to work and to participate in the life of the society. Their dignity and their self respect depend from this participation.
As we have seen before, since the beginning every Human being had to work to be able to live; therefore, the time of every person's life is divided between work, rest and leisure.
The Proportion in which it is divided depends on the facility or on the difficulty of procuring or producing the necessities of life. This proportion has varied during different stages of our evolution, and it varies in different environments and climates.
In certain climates and environments Human beings did not feel the necessity to accumulate provisions; these could not be preserved for very long, and the environment itself was a constant store.
In other climates and environments, to accumulate and store food was a necessity of life; But in every case, even if in different ways and to different degrees, Man had to make an effort to survive.
Therefore, as in our complex environment we are all dependent on each others' efforts to produce the necessities of life, we could be more productive if we would cooperate with one another; this cooperation could only be made possible by the public ownership of the more important means of production, and by a democratic participation in the decisions concerning what and how commodities should be produced and shared.
We should understand the plain fact that the life of every person is divided in two main parts, an amount of time that one must dedicate to social production (production is already social), and an amount of time that one can dedicate to leisure and personal development. The more efficient and productive the time employed in social production would be, the more time and material could be available for rest, enjoyment, learning, and other projects for the future of Mankind.
As our time is divided between social production and leisure, so should property be divided in the public property of the means of production and the private property of our personal belongings.
If we want to be part of the life of the society, then that part of our time employed in production must be encompassed by our duty to work and our social responsibilities, the rest of our time is the time of our individual liberty, limited only by the `Golden Rule’.
In the new society, the task of production should be reduced to the simple technical question on how to perform it in the most Humane, most rational, most efficient and least wasteful way possible in harmony with our environment.
Once we have performed in cooperation the practical task of producing the means of our physical survival, we should be free to spend the rest of our time in the way we are inclined.
This is a very simple concept, and it is not a pipe dream because this is a positive feature of Human nature. It is what rational people do most of the time. Most families or groups of people who have some work that must be done, usually try to organise themselves so as to do it as quickly and as efficiently as it is possible, so that when it is finished they can either all sit down and have a good time together, or go away separately and do their own things.
Of course, often there is argument and attrition, but this, as we are imperfect and ignorant creatures, is part of normal life, and never more than in capitalist society.
As technology has increased and will continue to increase our productivity, our competition for the means of subsistence should diminish. It is only Capitalism that, while it has almost solved the problem of producing in abundance the necessities of life it must keep on promoting an environment of want and competition between Human beings, because, as Adam Smith has pointed out 250 years ago, not the satisfaction of Human needs but production of private profit is "the ultimate end and object of all industry and commerce".
Capitalist apologists like to assert that cooperation between Human beings is not possible because, besides being individually selfish, they need incentives to work and produce more. In their opinion, only capitalism can provide such personal incentive: of course, they must be thinking about themselves because the main incentive the working man is allowed most of the time is the fear of losing his job. While they preach that because of selfishness cooperation is not possible the capitalists never stop urging the working man to cooperate with them by making ‘sacrifices’ for the Economy and the Nation.
The capitalist assertion about cooperation is superficial and has no real ground. Human beings prefer to cooperate when they like each other and when their lives depend on cooperation. Never more than at present there has been such a pressing necessity to co-operate: but the nature of the capitalist system, the nature of competition, is not conductive to Human cooperation, nor to good Human relations.
The new society must promote an environment that will reduce the fears that Human beings, in their ignorance have of each others.
There can be better practical incentives to work than the greed for profit and the fear of unemployment. The following could be one simple and positive incentive to produce more and save materials in a non competitive society:
any person or group of people who find a way to facilitate production or to save materials and energy without lowering the standard and quality of work, should be entitled, if so they please, to an amount of `time off’ equivalent to the time they have caused to be saved in one year; after that, the advantage should accrue to the whole community and society. This is only one of many possibilities.
In this way every person would have an incentive to use his imagination and ingenuity without causing jealousy amongst the rest. On the contrary, the rest would have an interest to see anybody having success in facilitating production because, after the first year, the benefits would be shared by all.
We all are proud of a clever friend when we know that his cleverness is likely to improve and not threaten our lives. In this way, a successful innovator would be more likely to earn the respect and admiration of his peers rather than their apprehension and jealousy.
Another principle related to life and work in the new society should be that production should be organised in such a way that as humanly as possible every individual person or group of people should be engaged in occupations compatible with their temperaments and their natural or acquired abilities. This would tend to promote a more harmonious working atmosphere and more productive participation.
Those productive activities that, for different reasons, may be shunned by the majority should be shared by all; alternatively they should be left as punishment to be performed by those who transgress the "golden rule". Every activity in the social process of production is of equal importance towards the overall performance. The scientist, the tradesman, the labourer, etc. all share in the process of social production, and they all depend on each other for the best results.
Therefore, a system of sharing in the performance of menial chores should be promoted in conformity with this principle. This would also serve to diminish the tendency that Human beings, in their ignorance, have to become arrogant and presumptuous. In an educated society, the status of an educated labourer should not be too much different from that of an educated scientist. Education has a very important role to play, and we will expand this point when we will discuss education in relation to the democracy of the society.
Moreover, each person in the society, young, old, male or female should have the opportunity to improve one's education or specialisation in any subject and also to apply for a different occupation any time one so desires. Therefore all schools, universities and technical colleges should be always open or provide night classes or internet facilities for such persons.
There should be recognition and rewards for excellence and for positions of responsibility, but not extravagant as in capitalist society. There is a saying that "if you pay peanuts you get monkeys"; it may be true but I also believe that 'if you pay too much you get selfish, greedy, dishonest, untrustworthy and aggressive pragmatists (pragmatists = people without principles = bastards)’; it doesn't rhyme but it seems to be true if we observe what kind of political and business leaders we have had lately, and how much good they have done to the country. Monkeys could not have done worse.
The best reward should be the feeling of having performed one's duty to the society and to oneself as part of the society, or the feeling of having been useful, or the feeling of having earned the respect and admiration of one's team and community, or the feeling of comradeship after a task well done which enhance the well being of all.
To sum up, these are the main principles of life and work: Humans always had to work, and work can be the best tonic for the Human body and spirit;
There must not be exploitation of Man and Nature; we must accept that work is a common necessity, and we should try to make it enjoyable;
We all have the right and the duty to work; only if we are physically alive and healthy we can pursue our individual personal activities, spiritual aspirations, etc;
We must coordinate our productive activities in the most efficient, less wasteful, most Humane way in harmony with our environment;
production is social; we all have the right and duty to participate; the better we perform our duties in production, the more time we would have available for our personal freedom to pursue our inclinations and aspirations.
As we have said before, there are two main types of property: public property of the important means of production which affect the whole of society, and the inalienable individual ownership of our personal belongings.
In the same way, there is an amount of our time that we must give to social production and social duties, and the time that we can spend as we please. In social production we should accept the 'self discipline' required by cooperative concerted action, as we do for the capitalists, and for lesser security, under the present system.
In our time of leisure, nothing should constrain our personal freedom but the Golden Rule.
In the new society nothing is given freely to those who are able to work. As work must be shared, so are the products. The rights of every person come with the performance of his duties to help and participate in the social process of production.
By slowing down the pace of the economy, by sharing in the work and eliminating the more obnoxious elements of capitalist competition, those people in the community who are slower or are handicapped should find easier to catch up and participate in the life of the society. Those who are able and healthy should become more inclined and would have more time to be helpful.