Why Work Can and Should Be About Thriving, Not Surviving
Historically speaking, work has been something that has been necessary to prop up a civilization, to continue its existence, and to provide resources for its citizens. However, for possibly the first time in human history, we are reaching a point where a lot of ‘work’ that is done, is not beneficial for our society. However, even though oftentimes work is not essential to society, it is more often than not essential to the survival of the individual working. This is a by-product of capitalism, yes, however, it is specifically the byproduct of capitalism in this current time, in this specific country that spends its tax dollars to primarily benefit the rich. It is this dynamic right here that is driving the rot and economic turmoil and inequality that we are coming to know the United States for. For instance, a poll earlier this year found that about 74% of workers in the United States are living paycheck to paycheck and another poll found only 34% of people find meaning in their careers. However, escaping this dynamic is not as easy as one would hope. To do this would take a complete overhaul of our values as a country and how we view work. This isn’t to say we shouldn’t escape this dynamic though. In fact, it is absolutely essential to the survival of the parts of our country we still value to do so and even more so to bring back to life the idea of the American Dream. What would that look like? Well, it would mean that work and a paycheck aren’t inherently tied and that someone could still live a dignified life without working. Let’s see how this would play out.
However, we all know that there are things other than objects that are valuable. Your neighbor helping you fix your sprinkler, someone helping the elderly with their groceries, or a parent spending time with their children. All of these things are of value in our societies and communities and yet currently doing any of these things will earn you no keep.
There are a few essential concepts we must first understand to change the way we see the economy and work. The first one is the concept of what is valuable. Right now, the typical common thought here would be something material. An object like an iPhone, a Lamborghini, or a beach house. Maybe raw materials like lithium, gold, or mahogany. However, we all know that there are things other than objects that are valuable. Your neighbor helping you fix your sprinkler, someone helping the elderly with their groceries, or a parent spending time with their children. All of these things are of value in our societies and communities and yet currently doing any of these things will earn you no keep. To understand why this is a problem you first should understand that society, and specifically a capitalist society, is supposed to be built on adding value to the whole. This is why we have the relationship we do to what is currently considered work. However, these examples show that this has gone awry. The way we deem something has value is with the dollar. At this point, we are paying people to do things that are not valuable to society as a whole but maybe just valuable to the company owners. And people who are or would be able to add value in ways that don’t currently get deemed valuable, are falling through the cracks causing certain valuable work to also disappear.
The next important concept to understand is that of abundance vs. scarcity. A concept Andrew Yang often talks about; he alludes to how a mindset of scarcity leads us to accept the struggle to survive. We look around our cities and towns and see poverty, we look back at our lives and see how difficult it’s always been to earn and get by and this leads us to believe that we really must struggle to survive and that we must compete for resources. But the opposite is actually true. We live in the wealthiest society in modern history and history in general if you consider quality of life and amount of resources possessed. Yet somehow more than 35 million Americans struggled with hunger in 2019, 567,715 are homeless right now, 2 million don’t have access to safe drinking water and sanitation, and the list goes on as you know. As we all know, people are struggling right now with basic necessities and that isn’t a problem of not contributing to society or a problem of a lack of resources, it’s a problem with the way we look at work. We could all be working together, we could all be fulfilling our creative and inventive ideas, our business ideas, and we could all live knowing we’ll never have to struggle to survive or to get our basic needs met. We could all live in abundance, but we don’t, we live in artificial scarcity.
This would also make sure no one would fall through the cracks, even in hard times. This would allow people to work towards their dreams rather than working for someone else’s profit, especially one that isn’t valuable to society overall all while maintaining a robust economy.
All of this is to point out the backward ways our civilization functions. The solutions to these problems aren’t so complex though and this brings us to the next concept: Human-Centered Capitalism (HCC) with a guaranteed income. HCC is the idea that the most important metric in society is each individual’s well-being, not each dollar. If the dollar is supposed to decide what is of value, not be of value itself, then we ought to reorganize the way money flows to always make sure the well-being of each individual is considered. A guaranteed income is a simple and elegant solution to this problem that doesn’t require any extra departments to further bloat the government. Simply put, every adult citizen would receive $1,000 a month from the government. If you’re curious about how this part would work, check out a closer look here. For the purposes of this article, let’s focus on Human-Centered Capitalism. Essentially HCC is the solution to the problem of valuing valuable things and unlocking abundance for all. It would work to value those who already add value but don’t get valued using methods like the guaranteed income and local time banking communities. This would also make sure no one would fall through the cracks, even in hard times. This would allow people to work towards their dreams rather than working for someone else’s profit, especially one that isn’t valuable to society overall all while maintaining a robust economy.
This new way of viewing our society is the most positive, but it is new. It will take some time for us to get there no doubt, but it is the future. Once in place, people would take naturally to it and would begin to work to thrive, not just survive. Shifting the idea of work towards something that adds positive value beyond survival is the next step in a wealthy and rapidly growing and developing civilization.
As I said earlier, doing something like this wouldn’t exactly be an easy task. It would take a complete overhaul of how the current system works and how so many people view living life. Perhaps the hardest part about accomplishing this is getting people to vote for it and the candidates that support it. This idea isn’t spread as far as deficit hawk conservative economics or a federal jobs guarantee and raising the minimum wage but that’s because these ideas have been around and had their time. This new way of viewing our society is the most positive, but it is new. It will take some time for us to get there no doubt, but it is the future. Once in place, people would take naturally to it and would begin to work to thrive, not just survive. Shifting the idea of work towards something that adds positive value beyond survival is the next step in a wealthy and rapidly growing and developing civilization. We already have the potential to be there, we just need to change the rules. Depression, suicide, and overdoses are at an all-time high because people see no way to access the wealth that surrounds us, no way to live a prosperous and dignified life. Changing the rules so that wealth goes directly to people and the potential they have is the greatest way for us to continue to develop and to turn society in a positive direction.
