The Work We Will Do
41: Labor for it's Own Sake
Hey friends!
We continue world-building in this newsletter based on the short fiction story “Ithaka” about a detective who unexpectedly sparks an interplanetary conflict during a murder investigation. The planet Minos, where the story takes place, is a socially advanced society. You can catch up on episodes in the podcast tab. In a previous essay, we explored the social framework and now we’ll discuss the planet’s economy, but also, what is possible in the future of work.
What we do not discuss often enough is exploitation. While we no longer have small children darting under looms in textile factories, workers of every stripe and educational pedigree, from healthcare staff to service workers to writers, are woefully under-compensated for the work demanded of them. Changing careers and the required investment may not be possible in a system that traps us while we struggle to survive. We are kept busy enough to barely battle workloads. Our tired minds relish the next paycheck, the reprieve of stability, and the sweetness of numbing treats.
Perhaps it’s just social media or the echo through time of the world at large, but I feel a shifting listlessness, a low hum of fatigue at the pace of the work week that sounds louder and louder. This isn’t it. Our existence is not validated by our production, but our presence.
What work will we actually do?
Minos has an economy which mixes traditional forms of bartering within agricultural, educational, and crafting sectors with government distribution of technological resources and basic needs. While not necessarily dependent on direct good exchange1, everyone is provided for. Complex social and financial problems are generated by a webbed system that traps some and frees others. This is why solutions are equally complex when operating within the confines of the system. If we cut the web altogether, we find that problems become simpler and so do the solutions.
We pull money from one pocket and put in another, take it out and send it across the room to build interest and bring it back. Why not simplify the transaction by giving away what people need? Our current system has a wealth of waste that would feed those who needed it. Hunger would be solved. Housing need would be solved. If those basic needs are met, then whatever is next can be tackled systematically.
Asking what people will do on Minos is the wrong question. The society is more focused on being. What we do to make money may say little about who we truly are, even if we are enthusiastic and high-achieving. Minoans are more closely aligned with their everyday work, which has a wide range of specialities. They are not busy trying to make a living and can freely create. As writers, illustrators, photographers, and filmmakers on Substack, we are a testament to the desire to create a more beautiful, intellectually stimulating, and enjoyable world by what we put into it. People can enjoy craft practice or scientific innovation for it’s own sake, not for what is produces.
Major industries
In an abundant society, the landscape changes for major industry. Professions supporting the common good prevail, like agriculture, sustainability, construction, mental health services, education, technology, and care services. These would all cover basic community needs and foster a circular economy that eliminates damaging and burdensome impact to the planet such as landfill management. Instead, fully biological plastics could provide advantages in fields like healthcare to maintain sterility without the waste creation or heavy reliance on incineration for disposal. Instead, composting would allow “waste” to return to the land. Construction and engineering would find innovative ways to bend transport and housing around the land rather than level it.
Research would also be a robust industry to fill the need for categorization of plant, animal, and insect life. While Goldilocks planets like Minos may look like Earth, understanding the planet and potential resources might be key to long term survival. Many would flock to laboratories for opportunities to create new taxonomic nomenclature for as yet undiscovered species and genetically examine their relationships.
Rich resources on Minos are traded on a community level with Waystation, a scorched planet beyond the Gemini Belt which is home to an advanced manufacturing and scientific outpost. Raw materials and advanced technology are traded in exchange for necessities like food and textiles. Waystation has currency so they purchase goods from Minos. Money is retained for trade and no other endeavors.
Education
We say they education is accessible in the United States and while technically correct, there are caveats to this wording.
Allotment of financial resources for public schools is determined by property taxes2. for homeowners but also standardized test scores for students3. The burden for support and resources therefore lies not only on parents or caretakers, but the children themselves and their often underpaid teachers.
Suburban, affluent communities by far have the best quality schools in New Jersey4. They have a high percentage of home ownership and at the highest tax rates in the country5, millions are being funneled into school systems that provide the best education a child can get. On the front of standardized testing, the children in these communities score highest, excelling in math, science, and technology.
The United States has a well documented history of a housing segregation practice known as redlining6 which marked which neighborhoods had black residents and were therefore deemed risky investments. In addition, road building around the country has cut brown and black communities apart, leaving the roots of strong groups unearthed and shriveled7
Add to that, levels of overpolicing in certain neighborhoods and cycles of poverty, and we’re left with a potential mire one must claw from to get to the education. Though if people are fortunate to escape the orbit of their town, college in the US is still some of the most expensive in the world. We can go on about student debt and underemployment, but suffice it to say, the bar is set very high if you do not have the means to level certain hurdles, without which, people would be free to learn within their capacities and explore many more fields as a whole.
An educated and rested populous is difficult to swindle. With robust education, which includes history and philosophy, Minoans are able to reinforce central values of community care but also accelerate the discovery of theory that will govern industry.
Needed jobs
The public is hyperaware of artificial intelligence heralding the obsolescence of many fields. It’s estimated 300 million jobs8 could be lost within only a few years. Our need to pivot from job loss and get into other industries along with corporations wanting to shave off costs creates job insecurity and less workforce opportunity. We are fearful of being replaced by technology and don’t know where alternative means of survival will come. Even further, not everyone can become a keeper of the technology. Many will be pushed to the margin or live on the edge.
Without the need to earn a living, technology could be used to replace humans in professions they don’t want to do. The most undesirable jobs could be managed by AI or machines so the society doesn’t have to depend on compulsory labor. From household chores to emergency room screening and triage, machine learning might more accurately asses patient risk for mortality or simply know when to order toilet paper. I will leave future citizens of Minos to decide what is undesirable work but in a free society, we may be surprised by what types of jobs are eliminated and enhance human life.
What about ambition?
The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answer’d it.
Willam Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act III Scene II
In this speech at Julius Caesar’s funeral, Marc Antony is trying to convince the crowd to rise against Brutus. He questions the perception of Caesar’s so-called ambition by pointing out instances of his empathy and grace, contrasting the charge of ambition from a supposedly honorable man who knifed Caesar in the back. So who is a threat, who is seen as ambitious, may be a dangerous matter of opinion. As an educated and philosophical populous, they examine questions of vice with skepticism. They are firmly grounded in their violent uprising and know truly what is vice. Ambition therefore is a cautiously encouraged venture. There will still be some hierarchies and need for leadership in certain industries. There will also be a need for regulatory bodies. People will strive to attain those roles based on their inclination for orchestrating processes. The achievement comes with personal satisfaction and maybe even degrees of control, however, not with a wage. And Minoans are careful not to allow what feels like a firm grip of power to sway them to betray another or become an aggressor.
Damn, I’ve really been telling, haven’t I? But this is the exposition I don’t plan to come out in pages of a character monologue. The truth is this story, this world, was a big push to release. What you see on The FLARE is fresh baked, never frozen, and I felt while I was putting everything together, I’d let you in on some of the nuts and berries inside. The showing is next, where I’ll tell the stories of migrants to Minos as well as how the planet got free.
I could’ve spent years developing this story, rolling it over in my mind, agonizing over the lines, but I like movement. I’ve moved so fast that this project doesn’t even have a name yet. But isn’t it nice to be part of a universe still forming? To see the constellations for the first time and name them? To create the legends yourself?
What’s next?
Unlocked subscriber only short fiction (CW: suicide)
Migration to Minos (short fiction)
Being present (essay)
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Wikimedia Foundation. (2023, February 27). Public school funding in the United States. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coincidence_of_wants
Wikimedia Foundation. (2023, March 29). Public school funding in the United States. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_school_funding_in_the_United_States#:~:text=The%20largest%20source%20of%20funding,job%20or%20pursue%20higher%20education
Broussard, M. (2015, August 21). Why poor schools can’t win at Standardized Testing. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/07/why-poor-schools-cant-win-at-standardized-testing/374287/
Clark, A. (2018, April 4). The top 50 elementary and middle schools in N.J.’s new state ratingsA. nj.com. https://www.nj.com/education/2018/04/the_top_50_elementary_and_middle_schools_in_njs_ne.html
Fritts, J. (2023, February 3). Where do people pay the most in property taxes?. Tax Foundation. https://taxfoundation.org/property-taxes-by-state-county-2022/
Jackson, C. (2021, August 17). What is redlining?. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/17/realestate/what-is-redlining.html
Kelly, J. (2023, April 3). Goldman Sachs predicts 300 million jobs will be lost or degraded by Artificial Intelligence. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2023/03/31/goldman-sachs-predicts-300-million-jobs-will-be-lost-or-degraded-by-artificial-intelligence/?sh=5724e85782b4
Excellent, Chevanne. I like the juxtaposition between Minos and Earth.
Just the fact that we seem to have a faux 'inflation' crisis every time poor people are given a raise should be enough for us to shift toward an abundance economy.