Who Does No Work, Shall Not Eat

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Sat Jan 19 11:47:21 PST 2002


Luke Weiger wrote:


>
> > I guess I must be stupid. Why's that?
>> Whereas allowing the lazy and idle to surf at Malibu and hang out in cafes
>> in the Village at the expense of the rest of us who build buildings and
>file
>> papers and such avoids the domination of a minority?
>>
>> Sheesh, no wonder the left is fucked sideways. You just try, just _try_,
>> selling this view to ordinary working people. They will not give you the
>> time of day.
>>
>> jks
>
>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).

Well there's always the old Swedish system. If you couldn't work you were treated generously, but if you could work, every effort was made to find you a job, and if one wasn't available, one was created. It wasn't cheap - it cost something like 2% of GDP - $200 billion in the U.S. - but it was popular.

Doug



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