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by briHass
863 days ago
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You forgot a big asset on this hypothetical balance sheet: the individual's (your) productive output over their lifetime. Until we get to a point where all existing, and all possible, human output can be done by machines at no cost to anyone, the 'indenture' is more of a reciprocal arrangement where you trade your output for others'. The scenario you outlined is one of unimaginable privilege for most humans living today, and arguably most humans and non-human animals through history. A climate controlled, personal living space in a safe society, varied and effectively limitless food/clean water, modern conveniences like a car/internet/telephone, access to healthcare by highly-trained doctors -- completely free of drudgery and effort (i.e. work). |
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When we go further to speak of "unimaginable privilege", then I have mixed feelings. In historical and global terms this is comparatively true. But if this comparison is simply used to scold workers when they get too uppity, then it serves another purpose.
Returning to "reciprocity" -- it might be worth pausing to ask why my imagination is limited to financial rents. If I were the baker, and I lived next door to the butcher and the candlestick-maker, then maybe I wouldn't mind making a loaf of bread and trading it for some meat or some light. (Yes, I see the predation involved in the meat -- perhaps it is inescapable -- but I will choose to gloss over it for now, privileging humans.) In this imaginary village, people have roles and trade labor, but you understand that your labor is in fact useful, and you understand who it is helping. I guess I am talking about Marx's "alienation", or lack thereof.
As a software developer, in many industries it is not clear that your work really benefits any individual person, or even society in the abstract. You perform drudgery and endure stress, but it all seems to be some terrible social game that accomplishes nothing, and you participate only because you must, to justify your existence.
So it makes sense why many software developers -- despite the flexible work arrangements, and the physically undemanding job, and the good pay -- would see work as only an evil and seek to escape it.
There has to be a way to do reasonable amounts of useful labor -- to pull your own weight -- without participating in Silicon Valley style "life".
Unfortunately, a degree of financial independence has to be an intermediate goal. But what the next step should be after that, I am not sure. For the super-rich, the answer is philanthropy. But for the yeoman programmer, it's less clear. It will need to be less grandiose than all that. It will need to continue to produce some cashflow, but it should provide understandable value to the community. I will need to think about this.