I am doing a little poll here.
It would be very interesting to see how many of you would do the work/study you do today even if you didn’t earn any money on it . Maybe you would do exactly the same job. Maybe you would do it with some modifications. Or maybe you wouldn’t do it at all.
I would like you to write a comment below and tell us the following:
- Write YES or NO or MAYBE to whether you would do your job/work without money.
- Describe your job and explain your answer.
- More elaboration if you like. Like, what would you do instead if you wouldn’t do the job you have today.
The premise for the above is of course that we have a resource based economy with no money, trading, barter or ownership, but with access to everything you need to live a good life. Society needs to go around, and some jobs would still be needed. Thus, the jobs we do must preferably be liked by the ones who do them.
Many jobs will be phased out by either it’s own nature (like banking) or by automation. In any case it would be enlightening to see if you have a job you hate or you love, or something in between. And whether your job is really contributing to society or if it can be phased out in a resource based economy, and what you would do instead.
Please share this with your friends also, so they can comment too.
PLEASE ANSWER THE QUESTIONS AS THEY ARE NUMBERED. THANK YOU.
yes!! i don’t want to learn or work just for money….
I’m not a slave to money… who the hell is money to tell me what to do?
i would want to learn for myself, not for money.
i would like to work for myself, not for money.
If money is everything, then we all have everything. Then why aren’t we happy? Why don’t we live our lives in peace?
because we have nothing except money.
1) No
2) Financial Services. Obviously, my job wouldn’t even exist in a moneyless system.
3) I would say “good riddance,” and then pursue work that has a life sequence of value.
This is a brilliant RSA Animate that explains what really motivates us. A brilliant resource for your site.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=u6XAPnuFjJc
thanks again
C
(i was just about to write an answer here, but the previous person has written exactly what i wanted to say
)
1. YES, with modifications.
2. My job is as a film maker. And in RBE I would definitely like to make films, but then I wouldn’t have made commercials for companies, but instead info film for the public, in addition to cool films that evoke feelings.
3. I think I would also do others things in addition to film. Like work in the community, plant and harvest food, tend a food garden, etc.
If you’re a film maker, you might be interested in the Waking Up movie:
http://www.wakingupmovie.com/
Speaking of that…
I tried leaving a comment over there, and the comment never posted.
I just wanted to ask you to visit my site, http://desolosubhumus.webs.com and let me know if you’d like any of my work as part of the soundtrack. The contact form on my site sends comments directly to my email.
I figure people who are going to make money using my work should pay fees to use it, but people who are making money and using it for a good purpose that I can relate to don’t have to pay those fees.
Waking up falls into the second category.
Of course, if it’s not what you want, that’s fine too. The big thing is that I want to see it after it’s finished.
Hm…strange. Well, thanks for you contribution! I’m on the road now, but will listen when I get the time.
Yes…
There is no fat lady, who is going to sing. … within the mundane, monetary religion, the greed process is never over.
Within the next 20 years, there are at least an equal number[20] “hockey stick” exponential graphs that, point to “real” resource based limitations. Sadly, we live in a world of monetary misinformation, and we therefore have no real way of knowing the motivation of those who went o the trouble of graphing the information. That aside, … Without resources, …. Money, jobs for money, inflation, output, banking, taxation, insurance schemes, BCM, DRM, boarders, politics and even the ultimate, fixation to wage war, are functionally obsolete. Regrettably, the very best minds have not been able to to explain, or model, “levels” of any of these artificial, monetary aspects.
There is a linkage between us and the earth and I suspect, it has nothing at all, to do with an economists’ superstitious, wet dream.
[8] Eight words … The Dodo bird lost it’s linkage to flight. … [ have u seen one lately?].
A time to start the massive, transition from material growth and artificial, wants to resource based sustainability and personal needs seems to be a reasonable path. Other solutions may surface with time, but do we have time?
Something to ponder … “WATERLOO, Ontario, Nov. 23 (UPI) — The less people know about complex issues such as the economy, energy and the environment, the less they want to know, Canadian researchers found.
Study author Steven Shepherd, a graduate student with the University of Waterloo in Ontario, said researchers found the more urgent the issue, the more people want to remain unaware.”
If, in fact, Japan, or Europe are the first to fall to the massive and necessary correction, they may also be the first to recognize and pioneer the world wide lifestyle of autonomy, intention, purpose, mastery.
1. No
2. Nightshift stock runner at Amazon receiving.
3. Nightshift jobs are the worst, I never get to see my friends or family because I am always sleeping during the day, and most nightshift jobs I have worked, make you work into the weekend. I couldn’t imagine having a child while having this job. I would never get to see him, just like what happened with my father when he worked nightshift when I was child.
There is no point in telling me automation can replace my job, I already understand that. Unfortunately, if we were to suddenly be pushed into a resource based economy tomorrow, it wouldn’t work. You would need a mechanical and electrical engineer working constantly in ever city across America, and not only that, but you also need to catch other areas up, that do not have such large resources of specialized labor, as we have in North America.
1)yes
I honestly think that all those who said NO are people who have their brain washed or people with lots of money which consider they deserve more than others because they reach a point others did not. A resource based economy is a natural economy or ‘the natural economy’. All the stuff we are doing for the last 2000 are wrong. The current economy is created by those who leads, by those who had the authority and wanted this authority to be restricted to themselves and their families. All the money in the world are an artificial creation, not a natural one. The world we are living in is absurd. We are currently considering that ‘oh i was born in this world who has these rules so if i want to live in it i should agree with the terms’. NO, this is not the attitude. We should figure out the the system we are living in at this time is not the right one. There are enough resources on Earth to feed all the 7 billions people. There are enough resources to build a decent home for all those in Asia or Africa. There are fundamental discoveries that are kept secret just because someone still earns money from the current good they’re producing(e.g the car, the electric car has been created when all the oil reserve has finished). Is this a coincidence? Oh no, it’s not. There is also system created a Nikola Tesla(~100 years ago) who can create free energy. Not to mentioned all the pharmaceutical companies who still produces millions of pills for people who suffer of diseases like cancer. All these just for money. You can’t have a hospital where the bugs are all over the floor just because “the government can’t allocate more money for health”. It’s absurd.
Imagine that all these will be completely different is a RBE because nobody will be interested in creating something useless just for selling it to as many people as he can. More than that the quality of every good will be better. There will be a competition on who is creating the best quality good and not on who is the getting rich by selling more goods. It makes no point to create a bad quality good and sell it to a low level class to make money. On a RBE such concepts will disappear.
Indeed, most of the current ‘jobs’ will disappear and will be replaced by automated systems. Imagine that you will be able to work less and spend more time with the family or travelling. Our goal is to progress not to make a bunch of paper called money. Once you’ve finished the school you figure you that you need to survive. How you can do that? By getting money. No, this is not the way. Living for getting money is not the goal. The goal is to develop your way of thinking. To evolve. To progress. Open your eyes.
2) i worked on a webhosting company and i would love to learn more and more about Linux/networking/system administration and help all the people for free. The satisfaction comes when solving the problem and not when i get the salary. I also like photography, math and physics.
3) If the administration of a system will became an automated system i would like to teach math. I will like to be involved in a research project(physics).
Baucelmic. Please understand and respect others choices. When someone say’s NO to do the work they do today in RBE, it is obviously because the work they do is meaningless to them, and also not needed in a resource based economy. Like, the police officer and stock runner on Amazon. Why on earth do we have those jobs?? Because of the monetary system and our fucked up mindset. So, without that, we won’t need those jobs. In RBE, we would automate a job like the stock runner, and the police job would hopefully be redundant as well, since there wouldn’t be a fraction of the crime anymore.
Which job/work should I answer for?
How about what I get paid to do? I work in a grocery store, so no, since there is no need to BUY food in a RBE. I may continue to cut meat occasionally, though I doubt there would be as much of a demand for my services, as I don’t cut cow to steak so to speak. Surely people would ask someone who could go start to finish to do that job.
How about what i don’t get paid to do? I’ll be uploading my forth album (all mine, from field recordings and more traditional music to filtering and mixing to editing out unwanted pops and clicks, album art, and site updates, as well as a bit of marketing) soon. Seeing as I’ve already made the first three free to download and that I do not get paid, I can safely say that I would continue my work without pay.
Then there’s the book I’m writing, though I’ve been stuck on Chapter 10 for far too long. I haven’t made a single penny off of it yet, so again, I would likely continue to write. It depends on my muse; not a paycheck.
Beyond that, I’d love to get cracking on the yardwork and adding some green around the house, which I’m sure I could easily find time for if I didn’t need to earn a paycheck.
I can see myself in an RBE, offering to trade a concert, digital copy of my music, book, etc. for food. Of course, I think all involved would likely get a good laugh out of that. I doubt I’d HAVE to trade for food (there’s that yardwork again-and reading a book on edible wild plants) and I doubt I’d be stingy with my music or writing due to not getting ‘paid’ in food.
Sounds like my kind of utopia…micro-farmer, musician, writer.
Hi Desolo, just to correct you a little bit. RBE is not about TRADING anything, but simply about giving, receiving and sharing. So, you wouldn’t have to trade anything to get food. That’s the whole point. As you can see from the title of this blog, it is ‘Giving and usership instead of trading and ownership’.
This is the new mindset we are trying to wake up the world to. So if you think you have to trade with people, you have misunderstood. GIVE freely, and GET freely, without obligations and without need to get from the person(s) you are giving to. And without the need to COUNT what you give and what you get. Yes, we can keep records of the amount of natural and human resources that we have and need at any given time, as a totality, but we don’t need to count our contributions to each other and to society. Our built in conscience will do that for us automatically.
This is an economy of TRUST. Trust in the universe, trust in nature and trust in each other, that there IS enough and that when we all GIVE, we will all GET what we need. Both of natural and human resources. No need to trade this for that. Give freely and get freely, no price on anything, which truly makes everything PRICELESS.
This is something we have to REALIZE for ourselves and humanity. The ease and JOY of giving instead of trading. The SIMPLICITY of simply sharing instead of hoarding. The LIBERATION of trusting each other and the universe itself.
I didn’t misunderstand.
“Of course, I think all involved would likely get a good laugh out of that.”
Think of it this way.
I offer to trade music for food. The other person snickers and says ‘trading is soooo 2011′. We both laugh.
In other words, the offer of a trade is only meant to start the conversation out with a little humor.
I get it. I stand corrected.
I’m a remodeling contractor, sort of. Since the start of last summer here in the Northern hemisphere i’ve had no work, to coincide with the cries of economic collapse that began in the media then. I like doing that work when i don’t need to toil at it so much that it causes repetitive stress injury. I absolutely hate the BS involved with maintaining a business. I can do LOTS of things, and i do, when i have spare time, which has been abundant, lately. On Sundays we prepare and give away food to around 200 people. I teach. I tinker with silly electrical, mechanical, and chemistry projects–have since i was little. I write. Turns out i’m already doing the stuff i do for no money, in part because no one’s paying, and in part because i’ve already committed myself to the paradigm you all appear to be pursuing here. I’m in. In fact: http://hipgnosis21.blogspot.com/2011/11/all-in.html
1. Yes.
2. I’m an information-technology analyst, architect and developer. My main mission in an RBE would be to help provide the much-needed information tools for managing the global logistics and online communication tools as “jobs needing volunteers”, “discussion/voting boards”, “production wishlist”, etc. I think it would be great to have some of this on a global level (ie. global logistics) and some in varying local levels (ie. “jobs needing volunteers”) – but even the latter could be designed once and deployed everywhere around the world. Hopefully this systems would work as well as this blog – great post and discussion thread as usual
3. I would definitely take breaks from my main occupation to help in whatever is needed at the moment (ie. “jobs needing volunteers”). This way not only I’d feel I’m helping society a lot but I imagine I’d be doing a lot of different, unrelated things thus gaining a lot of life experience, learning and meeting new people.
So far we have a vast majority saying “yes” from vastly different occupations, even for jobs themselves say are not fun or enlightening. I’m also happy to see people would definitely refuse meaningless jobs. OK the first step – the mindset – is covered. What now?
I wonder how long those who say they “would kick back and live the good life” would be able to go without an activity. I think of this as a way os answering “I don’t like my current occupation” – I’m sure they’d find something they like to do after a while, if they have easy access to a tool which would easily provide a few options. Also, with everyone working for free people like this would be a huge social stigma, with a lot of pressure for them to do something.
Exhibit: the monetary religion, that entangles every facet of our lives. It violates our relationship and access, to nature.
So, within the entanglement, you place your life in a cart and if you hook your cart to a job for money, then creative abilities can destroy your ability to work. “This is a technology story” and moreover, it is kind of hard for us to wrap our minds around the dynamics. The ability to engineer cells, tissue, E cat cold fusion, robotics LOL put your pet project on the roster …
“The next time someone accuses you of ‘wasting time’, by sitting and playing games all day, refer them to the players of Foldit,” http://www.endofshow.com/2011/09/19/hiv-breakthrough-made-by-online-gamers/ This is not Star Wars …Imagine using an iphone situational, APP to place your eyes into microfocus.[a field trip to brood about] http://www.medicalindependent.ie/page.aspx title=german_retinal_implant_could_help_blind_people_see
Politicians talk about creating jobs. Jobs are not coming back … fussing over money only makes it bleed. “sophisticated individuals”, cross threading every regulatory, nut and bolt we put our hands on. We are but determined Madisons, tinkering with Hammurabis’ misinformation, code.
catch-22 – noun a dilemma or difficult circumstance from which there is no escape because of mutually conflicting or dependent conditions
… consulting nature, you are a capable, problem solver, without the hinderance of money and never out of work. All this points to the importance of all your, without money, efforts … they do not go unnoticed. Thank you.
And your answer to the question…?
Not only did you NOT answer the question, you completely misunderstood.
Seriously, I doubt the people playing Foldit are the same as the people saying they would do nothing. Doing nothing…in other words breathe ONLY because it’s necessary, and maybe the occasional bowel movement.
If I tried doing the same nothing they are talking about, I’d go crazy in under a day. Personally, I’m not prone to that level of inertia.
After that, you lost me. You ended up splintering into a handful of random tangents and never quite got around to producing a complete thought. Responding to only half a thought is rather hard, as figuring out the other half of your thought requires psychic powers I do not have.
1. No
2. I work as a police officer/security guard at a military base. The hours are long, the job is boring and uninspiring to say the least. Plus you have to deal with egos and insecurities because the military can be very competitive and there are people who always like to be right or feel like they’re in control, rank and seniority having something to do with that.
3. I would honestly like to travel the world, broaden my perspectives of human nature and different cultures and once I feel I have a better understanding of how the world works become a film maker.
I have two jobs
I teach English as a second language and I translate.
I actually enjoy teaching so I wouldn’t mind doing it for free, but the things that I have to translate are very boring (patents, commercial agreements) so I wouldn’t do that if there was no monetary incentive. Besides, when translating I sometimes feel like I’m some sort of globalization grease – lubricating its moving parts.
Who needs patents and commercial agreements in an RBE anyway?
It sounds to me that in an RBE, you would be the one helping to lubricate cooperation, and that would likely be one of the most necessary jobs at that point. An RBE could not possibly work if people were unable to understand one another.
Absolutely: Yes,
I work as a soundengineer, Musician and Music teacher for children. Music is my way of life that allows me to have intimate contact with my fellow humans. If I would not do it, I would be a very isolated person. But my choice gives me quite a hard time financially and I am under pressure every once in a while. I strongly wish to be able to see the change we all need in my lifetime. If not, I push it for my children. There is nothing that makes more sense.
I help businesses become more efficient by moving all their operations online, in the cloud. So I guess the technologies that enhance communication (email and documents) would still be useful without money; however I am helping businesses to essentially have a an online system that supports them buying and selling services.
In a resource based economy I would be doing something radically different and letting the technologies that I currently work with be automated without me being involved
I love what I am doing as a teacher because I get to help people. It is quite rewarding. But in an RBE, I would do other things besides this, and I would travel more and teach a wider variety of subjects. I would also respond to problems in the community as they arise, rather than saying to myself, no, not now, I have to go to work. I think in an RBE, since no one is paying for my services, I can always reschedule or modify a teaching session, without anyone feeling that they have lost anything. Values would be different. People will be more appreciative of my, say, missing a teaching session because I am helping someone with problems with their house or garden; they would be amenable, say, to additional homework or online exercises, while I am not present as a teacher.
1. MAYBE
2. I am a software developer in my day job. It’s a standard line-of-business database application that helps the office track their core stuff. It’s ok but I don’t get enough freedom to design/test/build things the way they should work so that the users are more empowered. I may still write software in an RBE because I like modeling data and doing object-oriented programming. I am geeky that way. If money was no concern then I would probably write programs to help people organize stuff.
3. I would definitely like to be able to go back to drawing/sketching, learn another language or two, become a certified electrician…tending a hydroponic/areoponic (sp?) garden would be cool too. I’d probably write software to help with that
Maybe.
I currently work part time at a high-end supermarket that sells food at ridiculous prices to people who have too much money to even notice. I work at the tills processing people’s bills, and while this in itself is very easy work, the most difficult part of my job is actually dealing with some of the customers.
The large majority of customers are great people, they know their rights to complain, but they’re not whiny and are patient towards staff and other customers. Some of the more, how should I say, affluent customers, are a real pain to deal with. I’m talking about the kind of person that already has a very comfortable standard of living, but still feels like the world owes them something. They get to my till, throw their items down at me, respond to none of my pleasantries and generally look at me as if I’m some sort of dirty peasant boy trying to pickpocket them.
And my dissatisfaction with my job goes further than the customers. The management has lately become terrible, we do not have enough of the right people at the right time to accommodate for how busy the store is, and the supervisors are left to run the checkout section constantly, with poor results.
The main managers have recently been inundated with paperwork as the result of an overhaul in the company’s organisational structures, effectively removing the people who keep the section running smoothly and placing the operation in the hands of overly-aspirational and inexperienced supervisors. At times the job can be rather stressful and highly demotivating, but at times it can also feel rather rewarding after a smooth transaction with a pleasant customer or an appraisal from a manager for displaying good skills.
I have always thought about how my job would fit into an RBE world, and I’ve imagined that the supermarkets of all brands would become unified food distribution centres, providing food to local citizens who are incapable of growing their own food (disabled people and those who do not have sufficient growing space to accommodate the food needs of themselves and/or their family)
Were this to be the case, then I would be far happier to work at my current job without pay. I would rest happily in the knowledge that my personal spare time contributed to people being able to go home and rest safe in the knowledge they have enough food supplies to accommodate a comfortable level of survival.
YES. I would definetely continue to work without any money. I am a musician and music teacher and I really love my job. In a RBE though I would like my work hours to be less, because now I live in Greece and I have to work about 8-10 hours every day day except sundays that i work for 5 hours!!! We have big problems here in Greece and people don’t realize who is responsible for them. Take care…
1. Yes, with modifications which will be possible in a RBE world.
2. I’m a technical engineer, responsible for almost fully automated punching machine. The company produced it ready for 100% automation, but rest of it is PRETTY expensive. So, many of my everyday stupid things will be out of my business. I’m also responsible for programming of industrial controllers for achieving full or better automation where is possible, but now is only for the ones that can afford it. As a hobby and currently trying to make some additional money of it (what to do? – it’s a stupid world like it is now and that paper is never enough), I’m a computer technician (software and hardware) so I can be useful in that fields too, especially in HW one, because so called “technicians” now just replace parts, they do not fix them, and many of them are fixable. Actually I really welcome RBE and hope to happen sooner as possible.
3. I would like to teach others who love the learn new things. Automation if the way to go!
1. Yes, in a RBE
2. I work with various type of gardening and I love the work.
3. My work is also my interest so I’d gladly do this even in my “spare time”. I would also work with other things ofcourse and the feeling of not doing things for money would be great.
1. YES
2. Just now I am studying Science, hoping to lead on to astronomy, and would definately do this for nothing. Yet it worries me that I am going into an industry that budgets resources and makes research cuts and this saddens me as I have a great love for science and hate to see it go to waste…
3. I also used to work as a hairdresser and hated charging people money to get this done as all I wanted to do is make people look and feel good without having to make them fork out a fortune.
YES. Today, i’m 63 w/2 grandchildren & love being w/them. When my children were young i worked 2 jobs just 2 make ends meet & rarely got 2 really be w/my children in a quality way. I feel we’ve adopted out our children & have lost much contact. In a Resource Based Economy i c people pursuing their passions. i c children becoming more creative than having their heads down into some technological ‘gimmick’. I was stuck in an administration job that i hated & was there only 2 help pay bills. At work, i felt guilty not being home & at home i felt guilty not helping w/t bills. What a dillema? What wud i have WANTED 2 do in my earlier years? Oh boy, travel, discover, investigate nature, meet other cultures, etc. Life could b one long learning experience. Also, being w/my grandchildren wud b much less stressful ’cause i wudn’t have 2 say 2-3 x/week (as i did w/my kids) “we don’t have the $$ for ______” which validates the statement made by JF “you r only as free as ur purchasing power allows” My wish is that a RBE comes 2 fruition. I’m sure future generations will b thankful. I remember an indigenous saying: “we do not inherit the land from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children” May our children & their children’s children live in abundance. BIG RBE Hugs, Mamma D “^_^”
No, definitely not. I am a scientist in a large corporate machine. Hopefully they will disappear or transform utterly.
I would become a healer of some sort, a Reiki practitioner and herbalist perhaps.
I would like to preface my statement by saying I am retired. I spent the last twenty years working as a nurse, proir to that I worked for a municipal agency and that job would not be necessary in a RBE. At the agency I worked in the purchasing dept and we purchased supplies and equipment to maintain secondary roads.
There will always be a need for nurses. This is a job that has to be done by someone. This is a job I would not do, it is very stressful and demanding.
I would like to do container farming. I would use containers since you can not own land. I would like to have a food supply, because at some point the person that stocks the grocery store may decide not to work. I would need enough ammunition to protect my food supply, if the police decide not to work.
I read that crime would decline in a RBE, because people would be given everything they need. But what would stop people from just taking what they want, if you have anything different, someone wants it.
In conclusion I feel some people will be forced to work. If you are not using money and you can’t own land what would be the incentive to work. Of course you may work to keep your life.
Wow Marion, now that was a gloomy outlook.
You have to keep in mind that RBE is not about scarcity, like it is today, but about obtaining an abundance of everything that we need of food, housing, clothing, technology and more, making our lives easier and more equal, not having to fight for anything.
Yes, the non-ownership concept is hard to grasp at first, but it doesn’t mean that you don’t have access to anything, it means the opposite, that you have access to everything that you need. Be it food, transportation, health care, housing, etc. If you want and need a patch of land to grow your own food, there wouldn’t be any reason for you not to have that as long as land is available, which it most probably is in RBE, but not today, since all land are owned by someone who doesn’t really need it. Except that food will be produced in abundance in RBE, both in automated ‘food factories’, hydroponically, in soil and ‘by hand’ by people wanting to do that, supplying food for the community.
We would work together in RBE, not fend for our selves.
And you are probably right about nurses, that they will be needed. What to do about that, if not enough people want to work as nurses? Again, we would work together, and without money and the need to work to serve the system, we will have an abundance of people who used to work as bankers and clerks and other non-needed jobs that can be assistant nurses. So I don’t think that will be a problem.
In RBE there will be a lot more options than we have today to solve problems. Today we are constantly limited by access to money and the need for profit and protection of jobs. In RBE, we can be much more creative when it comes to solutions. We don’t have to be afraid if ‘someone looses their job’, rather, that would be the point, to need less people.
Thus, we can automate much more tasks that many nurses do today. Technology and robots can monitor patients and replace a lot of the need for nurses. Besides, in RBE, there will be much less stress, much more nutritious food, much more efficient medicine and healing technology and thus much less sick people and much less need for nurses and doctors.
Doctors will not be in the pocket of the pharmaceutical industry, but will actually be genuinely interested in your health. They would even work to eliminate them selves by working on prevention of disease and poor health and the promotion of good health.
Today, our system lives of disease and sickness, and that’s why so many people are sick. In RBE, the goal would be 0% sick people.
And the “if you have anything different, someone wants it” is a not an argument. Today many people have different things. This doesn’t mean we all act like spoiled kids if we want what the neighbor has and go over there and just takes it. No, we act like adults and respect what other people have in their possession.
It will be like this in RBE as well, except there would be even less reason to ever want something that someone else ‘have’, because you could get that yourself as well anytime, unless it is a ‘one of a kind’ personal thing, like a painting by that person. In that case, if you like the painting, you might be a worthy receiver of that painting. If you, on the other hand ‘steal’ that painting, you would only be looked upon as weird. And in RBE, personal creations like this are the only things you can ever ‘steal’ in any case, since everything else will be accessible in abundance for everyone.
And when it comes to your first job; maintaining secondary roads, that would actually be needed in RBE. Not the job of purchasing equipment and resources, but definitely a job where the need for maintenance of secondary roads is tracked and resources are obtained. Still, things like this will also be automated eventually, based on user input; A person driving on that road reports that there are some holes there that needs to be fixed (or probably the car reports that itself). Then the maintenance robots go to that place and fixes it right away. This is not science fiction, this can be done with today’s technology.
I beg you to open your eyes and widen your mind.
It’s like I say with my music, it’s not piracy if I tell you that you can download it for free.
I don’t lose anything by sharing my work, so why be stingy? Granted food is a necessity, but if this slew of comments is any sort of clue as to what life would be like in an RBE, a large percentage of people will be happy to grow their own food. Some will be overjoyed to grow more food than they can eat, meaning those who do not grow their own will still have an ample food supply. Even then, by downsizing the growth trend we currently have in a monetary system, more space will be available for food to grow on its own, in other words, nature will provide. Let me hike in the mountains near my hometown, and I could find a feast growing wild by the side of my path.
All things considered, stealing would be foolish. Not only is it unnecessary in order to provide for yourself, but it’s impossible to steal that which is freely given. If you visited family over Thanksgiving, did you steal the portion of dinner that you ate or was dinner about sharing? Did any part of your family feel that it was necessary to bring firearms to the table to secure their own portion of the turkey?
I have no wish to live in your dystopian world.
Maybe. My job is to respond to complaints. Many complaints are money related, so they would go, and in a resource based economy, far more of the services of my organisation would be automated, and therefore more effective, and therefore less grounds for complaints. So I think there would be far less to complain about in an RBE.
No, because I am a business software support consultant, typically working with accounting software. This will be made obselete in an RBE and I would be free to pursue scientific and technological interests.
1. MAYBE. My job is in a factory. I’m around loud plastic mold machines. The robots have a huge metal molds that clamp together, squirts hot plastic into it, cools it off then spits it out onto a conveyor belt… then, I grab it of the belt and put it into a box to ship. We ship our products to hospitals. I believe it is a nessacery job right now because we have not the technology to do it on it’s own. I say maybe I would work still because it demands… on whether or not I would be fed or housed. If I didn’t need the money and also if I did not have to work so much. For example, instead of me working 40 hours a week-let’s get rid of useless jobs like cashiers and put them at a job like mine sharing the load. If 10 people worked at my job I wouldn’t have to work so much, we could all work only 4 hours a week doing a job that is nessacery but not so fun! -.- in the long run I would want no body to have to work there because technology takes over.
Describe your job and explain your answer.
More elaboration if you like. Like, what would you do instead if you wouldn’t to the job you have today.
1. Yes, I would/will continue to do what I love with no monetary compensation. It turns out, lifting that pressure from my thoughts has actually released an endless amount of creative energy in itself. Amazing!
2. I’ve been an artist for pretty much my whole life.. it started with music (singing, writing, and producing) and led me to photography and film, etc.. (I was born into a family that was and still is very plugged into the financial industry).
3. I used to work in the financial industry via the family business, as well as marketing and advertising when my views on money and our current systems were different but the RBE has completely refocussed my goals and passions. Now, I’m focussed on creating awareness through advocating the Zeitgeist Movement and bringing up the RBE concept as much as possible to anyone interested enough to listen and learn more. Music, art have been and always will be my creative outlet and it’s really amazing to approach my craft without the pressures of wanting to compete or gain awareness for monetary value. A year ago I was a completely different person in that.. I was fixated on the idea of “making a living” from what I love to do. I had an intense business plan in the works with the intent of seeking investment capital to further exploit myself. Now, I’ve committed myself to learning as much as I can about understanding our current systems and of course learning about the RBE and how awesome the concept really is.
It’s interesting that most people that oppose the idea are almost always visibly annoyed by it.. as though it is advocating some terrible way of living that will ruin our current “intelligent” systems. Most times they don’t even know why they don’t like the idea. It’s something that has been happening more than I’d like to admit. It really goes to show the power of the human mind and our unwillingness to learn something new, when we program ourselves to think that way.
- A hugely profound quote from the Peter Joseph:
“in order for us to grow productively as a species, we need to become experts at ‘changing our minds’ about anything and everything.”
and another from an unknown source:
“The truth isn’t something that is told to you, it is something that you realize through new information”
I would. So would my partner. We are undertakers and hate having to charge inflated prices for our ‘fatcat’ owners, who don’t even work here.
Good luck
1. NO
2. Security Guard (corporate) – My job serves no purpose whatsoever. I am just a small part of a financial mechanism – my wages are paid due to the difference in insurance premiums for 24 hour guarded premises – there is no real threat, its a great insurance/security scam. However, I do like working with my colleagues who are a fine group of misfits – a great cross section of those who are well and truly victims of our environment!
3. I spent 25 years playing in a band with no aim of it really being a career – it was fantastic! (never made any money) …and I would still be doing it if I didn’t want to provide some stability for my family. I love being with children and wish I had studied to become a teacher.
1. YES.
2. My day job is counseling parents to help them understand their children and solve problems, using the Collaborative Problem Solving approach (www.livesinthebalance.org). I hate having to ask people to pay for this service. I would do this for free ONLY if people found it helped them improve relationships with their children. In an RBE, parents will have more time with children, and may have more training in getting-along skills, so this kind of consultation may not be necessary at all. Fine with me!
My other “job” is filmmaking. This job I do because I love creating media that is informative and thought provoking. I do this more as a “hobby”, and so far have spent more money to create films than I have earned back. I love to do this and would be thrilled to pursue this kind of creative “work” in a Resource Based Economy.
1. Yes, but I doubt if the work I do now will be required in a RBE.
2. My work involves helping people to find and purchase the care that they feel they most need with their social care money, sometimes known as a Personal Budget or an Individual Budget, in line with the new aim of personalising social care.
3. I would still love to explore with people with different abilities what they feel would be most fulfilling for them in life. But some advances in scientific understandings and associated technologies are already beginning to have an impact on what support people may need in future, by offering them the opportunity to gain previously unknown, or regain lost, abilities.
I have a passion for quantum physics, and I’m already beginning to explore that more as I deliberately only work part time as I feel privileged to be able to do so and still enjoy the beautiful simplicity of life!
yes, i would do my job / passion without money. in fact, money makes my passion nearly impossible as there is little money to be made from addressing the problems i address, such as, engineering automated floating recycling factories and swarm systems that would help clean up the north pacific garbage patch. teachers and parents in a sane world will ask children, “what problems do you want to solve? how will you add to the happiness of humanity?” not, “what job do you want? how much money will you make?”
YES!
I work full time as a software developer and I do voluntary software projects on the side allready. But I guess I would be more picky about what projects I get involved in, focusing on those I find challenging.
Yes.
I’m working as a Social Media Strategist – help people, institutions and companies to improve what they do by listening to what people says about them in social networks.
I’d work for no money, providing food, shelter and leisure needs is taken care for. For example – I wouldn’t ask for trips to Bali in exchange, but I’d need a car for work and personal use
No. Absolutely not.
I’m a printer/press operator for a commercial printing company.
I loathe what I do for money. I’ve been performing difficult tasks on machines for 35 years. I don’t have to wonder…I know the impact this noisy, repetitive and nerve racking occupation has had on my psychological development over time. It makes me miserable.
I read some time ago about NASA doing an experiment wherein they were taking photo images of Mars to do some mapping. Instead of tying several PhDs into the full time task, they used a very simple interface and put it out on the web to see if people would be willing to spend a few moments whenever they had time to spare, clicking on the photos, free of charge. Six months later they had just under 100,000 people working in 10 minute intervals, to generate at a faster rate than the images were being produced. Once you showed it to several people and computed the average there was little difference from the markings of a fully trained PhD.
We are capable, outside our culture and adapt to new situations with remarkable results. “Why do people participate? What is their motivation when they work for or contribute resources to a project for which they are not paid or directly rewarded?” Mother washing folding an neatly putting your clothes away day in day out. Now what on earth would motivate these people?
Keep in mind we are entangled within a belief system; a monetary religion. The collective flow of all human knowledge can be brought to bear upon the problems associated with abandoning the antiquated, economic religion. Access is as close as the powerful tandem of wikipedia and Google; more will follow.
The recent JET-LAGGED AND RAGGED By James Howard Kunstler gives us a hint that Gothenburg, Sweden, has some interesting starting points for different social design.
I would, I am a Montessori preschool teacher. I totally believe that we can create a life where money place no part at all. There is so much evidance of abundance everywhere we look if you will just look for it. Look at nature, a perfect example. Always producing more than needed, taking turns to share the spotlight, every part is part of the whole working together. Look at the most precious thing we produce, the miracle of life “a human baby” do we pay people to do this? no. This is done freely without monetary rewards to every mother in the world. Look at the very heart of a family who will do anything for their members without charge. Given the time to change we will come to this understanding that it can be done, We have to look outside of the current paradigm, and begin with one step at a time.
You don’t really ponder WHAT jobs would be needed in an RBE – one of the key concepts is that most jobs are automated. People wouldn’t be needed to design cars – cars are one thing we need to get rid of – and which we will get rid of one way or another, as we run out of the oil needed to make and run them.
The vast majority of service and production jobs would be phased out – indeed, this is already happening today – it is what we term ‘Technological Unemployment’ So an important question is which jobs would be left – to my knowledge, some 90% of all jobs if not more, could be replaced by technology.
This of course raises a fairly important question: Not whether people would do their jobs in a Resource Based Economy – but: What would people do…?
One of the key arguments for our current economic system is that if people didn’t have jobs, they would just be lazy and sit around doing nothing. I think this is a fundamentally flawed assumption. If there isn’t something we have to do, we do what we love to do. At the heart of this discussion, we find the idea that our work is what defines us as human beings. This has very much been true, throughout the last 200 years – and we’ve come to accept it as second nature. Prior to the French Revolution, though, when the vast majority of the European population were peasants and America hadn’t even been discovered yet, I find it VERY hard to believe that this could have been the case.
So, the question we find here is basically one of what defines us as human beings, and how we define ourselves.
In answer to the question: I am currently an English student at Aarhus University, Denmark – and yes, I would continue to study, even if the prospect of money wasn’t involved. Money isn’t my reason for studying in the first place – I am studying in order to increase my knowledge and widen my horizons.
Yes I would do what I am doing with out money. I would also like to garden in order to provide fresh produce and natural spaces to walk, play and work in the city I live in…
yes
Yes, I am doing it already. I am a minister of peace, plus a housekeeper. I work for room and board, plus I write, pray and inspire others in what they do. I also volunteer with a 501c3 and work as secretary. My eBook, “a Love Based Society” is free to download on my website. Without Love nothing is possible. The question is are you doing it for Ego Love or Spiritual Love (Love of God). If you do not understand what this is I pray you will read my eBooks, so at least you are making conscious choices. Blessings on your Journey of Love ♥ Sequoia Elisabeth
Well so far we have one lazy person who would sit around all day watching tv and playing video games if he didn’t have to work (me) and 2 artists who would do their work for free, providing their basic needs are met.
Hmm, now we only need people to wake up every day and grow crops and raise livestock, design and produce video equipment, make musical instruments and musical equipment, work at the power plants, extract resources from the earth, I suppose we will still need to be somewhat mobile so we need people to design and make cars, resurface roads, clear brush, build houses, we will still need people to manufacture drugs and antibiodics, give x-rays and MRIs, people will need to design, build and service that equipment too. We will need drivers, warehouses, distribution centers. I guess we will still need clothes so we will need someone to grow cotton and raise sheep, textile mills to make the clothing, all of that will need to be produced, transported and distributed too. I am sure there is more but you get the idea.
I am not discouraged. I am sure we will find people willing to do all that stuff for free so we can do what we want! This is going to be great!
I am sensing a slight irony here….
I see your point, and it is a vast stretch to imagine ‘the whole world’ starting to do all this stuff ‘for free’, but without imagining, there will be no future. Someone have imagined the world we live in now with a population brainwashed by religion and money.
What we have to do is imagine a new world where people are waking up to a new mindset and ways of sharing.
We have to keep in mind that the ones who imagined the world we live in today were not very many (the 1%, remember), so when the rest of us start to really take charge and imagine a different world, it will be a 100 times more powerful than the world the 1% imagined for us.
Yes. Even happier.
yes, since i’m currently an “unemployed” self-employed artist; alot of the work i’ve done over the last few years has been pro bono.
i do what i do because i love doing it, not because i ever expect to get rich doing it. and because i love doing it, it hasn’t been difficult for me to decide to take on a project that holds little prospect of monetary reward.
I am a musician/composer, I have always been, but at present I am doing this full time, so I don’t get paid anything at all. I was an alternate health Products Consultant for 15 years, (paid) and I do miss it. I would do both these ‘jobs’ for no pay, if my basic needs were met in return ie warm dry home, with a piano, a couple of horses garden, foul and dogs. and the things I need to do my ‘Jobs’ I get so much joy sharing my music with people and my knowledge to help those healing their body and soul. I would work endlessly to help others.
What more do I need 
1. Yes.
2. Actually I prefer to use the word “work” instead of “job”. I never want to have a job unless I absolutely must.
3. Currently in traditional society terms I am unemployed. But I feel I have a lot of work to do. And I don’t earn a dime. I am in a process of starting a blog in English and perhaps to write a book based on my traveling experiences. I am sure at some point I have to make decisions whether to accept money or not for the work I have done. Possibly I will accept it to survive in society, but I don’t do it for money.
No, I would not.
If I could have the same quality of life I have not without having to work I would not work.
I would spend my time doing what I want to do, when I want to do it. If laziness has no consequences and work has no individual tangible reward I would kick back and live the good life!
Sounds great where do I sign up?
1. YES, with modifications.
2. My job is as a film maker. And in RBE I would definitely like to make films, but then I wouldn’t have made commercials for companies, but instead info film for the public, in addition to cool films that evoke feelings.
3. I think I would also do others things in addition to film. Like work in the community, plant and harvest food, tend a food garden, etc.