Who Does No Work, Shall Not Eat

Miles Jackson cqmv at pdx.edu
Sat Jan 19 11:42:07 PST 2002


On Sat, 19 Jan 2002, kelley wrote:


> At 01:17 PM 1/19/02 -0800, Luke Weiger wrote:
>
> >Well, I do see a problem with saying that everyone will be required to work
> >under socialism while advocating an expanded AFDC in the here and now (a
> >cause I assume we all share).
> >
> >-- Luke
>
>
> sure oblate. those men and women who're wiping their children's butts,
> cooking, and cleaning aren't working. righto!
>

Kel hits on the thing that bugs me here: if we keep using the term "work" to refer to wage labor, we make invisible a huge amount of the social labor that is necessary for our society to thrive, and we take the people who do it for granted. "Everybody should work, no shirkers": fine, as long as we realize that work is far, far, more than wage labor, even in an industrial society.

Miles



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