Robert Wrubel wrote:
>
> Miles Jackson <cqmv at pdx.edu> wrote:
>
> "Are there enough people intrinsically interested in cleaning public toilets so that we
> need no social or economic coercion to make sure all the public toilets are cleaned?"
>
> (BW) Apparently, no one on this list was in the military, or has heard of KP duty. Although the military is a coercive system, there is a difference between doing something because a sadistic sergeant is screaming at you, and doing it because you realize it has to be done.
>
> All the unpleasant work just needs to be divided by the number of physically capable people in the society and each person then required to do his/her part.
In addition, there simply is not that much work that is unpleasant in and of itself; it is the long hours of such work that makes it seem impossibly obnoxious. And cleaning toilets, though always the example given, is really not a good example to use. Try shovelling the plaster dust that drifts up into the loft of a plaster factory in 100@ Kansas heat. The friend that had that job said he had to go outside every 40 minutes or so to dig the hardened plaster out of his nose and ears. But divided up even that would not be all that horrible.
What is essential for socialism is that no one have more than a 16 hour week. Then there is no hardship imposed by assigning people (coercion) to nasty work.
If consumption has to be reduced, so be it. Leisure is what counts and everything else is secondary.
Carrol