Ready for work?

Did you know Great Pyramids of Egypt were likely not built by slaves? And no I don't mean aliens or Atlanteans built them either. Current theory is they were seasonal workers, peasants who labored during the portions of the season when they weren't needed in the fields, or even full time workers who had "shifts" of thirty months or so at a time. They were paid with housing and food, and laid to rest in their own tombs nearby.

This was the state of labor for kind of a long time really, serfdom was pretty popular in Europe basically everywhere, peasants worked the fields, the rulers took what they wanted and theoretically protected the peasants from attack or whatever. Essentially an exchange of labor for housing and a measure of protection.

Today we have a standard of living that is somewhat higher than "not starving in the cold/desert heat". Well, most of us do anyway. And systems of government have formed that theoretically give us more rights than simply that of not being murdered by the ruling class whenever they feel like it. You could argue that the latter is not exactly true, as a black man in America for more information, but remember I said theoretically.

The point is, our culture is at a stage where the average human, at least in the more advanced countries, can expect more out of life than survival, they expect that when their work day is done they can do something fun, plan a vacation, hang out with family or friends, you know the drill.

Our culture does... not appreciate that idea it seems, and convincing employers, regulators, and the upper class to think about laborers and service industry workers as anything other than medieval serfs has been a losing battle in the last few decades.

There is no reason, absolutely none, that someone working full time shouldn't be able to pay rent, this is by far the worst indignity the system puts on those of us on the bottom, but it is not the only problem, see, we have also trained ourselves to think that complaining about working conditions is being a wuss if you are a guy, or being pushy if you are a woman, both labels you can't afford to get in most work environments. Levy at the Moda Center expects you to work like a slave, and to smile about it and say thank you, as if they are doing you a favor with a completely unpredictable schedule and  among the shittiest compensation for work that I have ever encountered in Oregon anyway.

But you know, I don't need to go into details, the majority of you who read this have experienced it yourselves, and those of you who haven't are probably at least sympathetic, or may be among the first up against the wall when the revolution comes, whatever.

The fact is, everyone deserves a certain level of dignity in their professional life but service and labor workers are not accorded that at all, we are treated as interchangeable cogs and we have a culture that encourages accepting of the hardships without complaint, those who do complain risk losing their job, and usually even a shitty job is better than unemployment. Many(most?) in these positions have swallowed the Kool-Aid and just assume this is how it is, that relentless labor violations are just how life works and not a sign of the lack of respect the culture has for them. Hell even he Egyptian workers got tombs and were accorded signs of respect for what they gave to their rulers. Die in the service of a company here and the best you can hope for is a moment of silence, quickly followed by your half trained replacement attempting to take over.

Money is a big deal, but breaks and meals are also a big deal, as are reliable schedules and shifts, plus the security of knowing that if you are sick for a week, your job will still be there, or if someone else is sick for a week those who aren't will not be run ragged while waiting for their return.

It's all such bullshit, at the moment we get none of that, maybe we get decent money, I am pretty damn lucky to be in that group. But we don't need to be there at all, at least not for much longer, the idea that money is required for the day to day life of citizens should be increasingly regarded as a notion whose time is nearly at an end, we can provide a pretty comfortable standard of living for everyone, whether they choose to work or not, and we can make working, any job, desirable enough that those who choose to do so can be respected again. But that threatens the system currently in place that rewards those at the top who exploit us at the bottom simply because that is the way they gained their power in the first place.

It's going to be hard to change, but it has to, with the increase in automation in both service, manufacturing, and even transport, combined with the export of many jobs to other countries, we are going to end up, even with a strong economy, in a position where millions are out of work simply because there are no jobs to do, a "New Deal" style plan of massively government subsidized public works would help offset that for a time, and should be implemented, but eventually the problem is going to need to be addressed, and short of letting tens of millions starve on the street, I don't see how a guaranteed basic income is anything but inevitable, and probably within my lifetime. At least as a temporary measure as we move away from currency as we know it into something else. It's a crisis point that is fast approaching, and how we deal with it may well be one of the main factors in if our culture survives in any recognizable form.