I'd say meaningful work could only be achieved when wage-labour is abolished. The forced separation between control and ownership of the social product from the producers makes work a meaningless pursuit of capitalist profit or as Marx put it, “It is above all necessary to avoid postulating ‘society’ once more as an abstraction confronting the individual." Everything which can be commodified will be turned into a commodity under the rule of the capitalist class, while the actual power relationship between the producers and the collective product of their labour will continue to be mystified. How much labour time is embodied in a Euro, a hog, a dollar, a Mercedes Benz, a yen, a can of beer, a house and so on?
This is why Marx would promote 'labour time vouchers' to replace money, as labour time vouchers would make the relation between product and producers' time at wealth production transparent, just after the social revolution from class dominated society to a classless democracy of social ownership of the collective product of labour.
Carry on, Mike B)
Carrol observed:
This is a historical footnote and does not respond directly to Michael's subject line query.
As he suggests, "meaningless work" is a feature of capitalism. My query: Prior to the rise and triumph of capitalism had _anyone_ ever been concerned, one way or another, with the meaning or non-meaning of work? Hence it would have been not just meaningless but unimaginable for the question of the meaning of work to be raised (for example) by one of Chaucer's pilgrims, or by any of the damned or the saved in Dante's world. If somehow raised the only response could have been some version of "Huh?"
In English literature I believe there is nothing to suggest the question before Paradise Lost, where the significance of A&E's labor in Eden becomes of cosmological interest. There is a good deal directly or indirectly dealing with work in the Odyssey, but none of the references could be attached to Michael's question.
Huge theoretical leap: Capitalism made ALL work meaningless by first raising the question of was work meaningful. No one had ever asked the question before, either implicitly or explicitly. Socrates put forth the slogan of Know Thyself -- which _meant_ Know your Place. It had nothing to do with modern concerns over self-knowledge, nor did it have anything to do with the "rightnefss" of the "place" in which one found oneself. It simply was the organizing principle of any society Socrates could imagine. It therefore while not raising the question in effect said that to raise such a question was unjust, a denial of justice.
Carrol
> -----Original Message-----
> From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org]
> On Behalf Of michael yates
> Sent: Saturday, February 02, 2013 10:08 AM
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Subject: [lbo-talk] Blog Psot: Why is our work so meaningless?
>
>
> Full at http://cheapmotelsandahotplate.org/2013/02/02/lucky-to-have-a-
> job/
>
> "Workers in a hospital are sick of management violating their collective
> bargaining agreement. Their work is ever more stressful: hours keep
getting
> longer; patient loads rise; safety rules are ignored. They tell their
union
> steward that it is time to bombard the bosses with grievances before they
> explode in rage. He tells them, "You better not do that. You're lucky to
have a
> job."
>
>
>
> In every industry in the United States, there are more people seeking
> employment than jobs available. Conservatives and liberals alike say we
have
> to put men and women to work. They differ in how they would achieve this,
> but both shout out the mantra, "jobs, jobs, jobs." Little is ever said
about the
> kinds of jobs that need to be created. What will they pay? Will they
provide
> benefits? Will they be interesting, safe, fulfilling, socially useful?
>
>
>
> Perhaps the reason we don't ask such questions is that we take our work
for
> granted, beyond our control and as inevitable as the rising sun. But
looked at
> in the long sweep of human existence, the jobs we do and the way we do
> them are unlike anything we did before the rise of capitalism" . . .
>
> _______________________________
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Wobbly Times
http://wobblytimes.blogspot.com/