*** Copyright c 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1995 by Nicholas Johnson. Conditions: This material is copyright by Nicholas Johnson. However, permission is hereby granted by him to download, copy and distribute the text to others if (1) the text is not altered, and (2) there is no charge to the recipient, and (3) this copyright notice and conditions are attached. It is a copyright violation to distribute this material altered, or without the copyright notice and conditions attached, or to use the material in any way for which remuneration is received without the prior permission of Nicholas Johnson. Contact: 1035393@mcimail.com; Box 1876 Iowa City IA 52244; 319-337-5555. Anyone using this material should also be aware that, as a syndicated column, copyright may also have been retained by the syndication services. During the 1982-86 period of publication syndicators included: The Iowa City Press-Citizen, Gannett Corporation, Register and Tribune Syndicate, Cowles Syndicate, and the King Features Syndicate. *** There's No More Work To Do The new technology brings curse with blessing. Take unemployment, for example. The fact is there's no longer any work to do. That may be a mite exaggerated, but hear me out. . We call "work" the unpleasant (but socially respected) things we do for pay. It used to be back-breaking farming and hazardous factory jobs. Aside from work and sleep, the rest of our time goes to pleasant things like leisure, vacations and retirement. They involve hobbies, sports and the arts. What happened to those farm jobs that occupied 90 percent of all Americans? Today we take land out of production because five percent of us produce enough to feed 230 million Americans, much of the rest of the world, and create surpluses. With "no" work on the farms, Americans moved to town and took jobs in factories. Now the industrial jobs are going -- a monument to American management's myopic failure to compete internationally, but also to its success. Without the phone company's electronic switching system, half our population would be working as switchboard operators handling the calls. As it is, a strike is hardly noticed. As computer-linked sensors take over oil and chemical plants, or pipelines, a handful of employees monitor machines doing what thousands of workers did before. As executives learn to type on word processors, there are fewer typists. As robots work three shifts in factories, there are fewer jobs for people. We can argue whether there's "no work" on farms and factories. But clearly the number so employed is very small and shrinking. We talk of 10 percent unemployment. But if "employment" is earning more than a poverty wage -- 50 weeks a year, 40 hours a week -- at a necessary task utilizing one's fullest potential, we have more like 90 percent unemployment. One of the major reasons for educating the young -- and retiring the elderly -- is to keep them out of the work force. Many do not consider housewives "employed." The defense budget pays millions of people for uneconomic activity -- from research by scientists and engineers ("leaf raking for intellectuals") to the drug-inducing boredom offered otherwise- unemployable foot soldiers. "Employment" for many of us in the information age means moving paper in large institutions. Some Republicans find present levels of unemployment acceptable. Democrats don't want to toss crumbs to the poor. Socialist Michael Harrington's "radical" proposal is to shorten the workweek and grant sabbaticals. All miss the point, which is that there is very little traditional "work" left to do. We have neither the ability nor desire to return to back- breaking farms and factories. Paper-shuffling contributes even less to the economy -- and individual happiness. Why not celebrate our condition? It's called Camelot. We don't need more wasteful "leisure." What we need is a new definition of "work." Let's pay ourselves for "working" at what delights and extends us -- and our civilization. Work is no longer agricultural or industrial and need not be paper-shuffling. It can be paid for with the productivity of computers and robots. Why just pay professors for reading and writing? We pay professional athletes and entertainers millions for their "work." Why not pay amateurs thousands to enrich our lives in parks and schools? If we'll pay a teacher for raising children why not redefine welfare mothers as working mothers? "A mind is a terrible thing to waste." So is a life -- or an hour. We might survive our waste of iron ore. We won't survive the waste of "employment" -- especially when it can be eliminated by new definitions in this dawn of a civilization where there is "no work." [ICPC September 5, 1983] END OF FILE