Anti-Job, Pro-Freedom Quote Of The Week 100!

Robert Fulford says 1984

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Freedom of enterprise was from the beginning not altogether a blessing. As the liberty to work or starve it spelled toil, insecurity, and fear for the vast majority of the population. If the individual were no longer compelled to prove himself on the market, as a free economic subject, the disappearance of this kind of freedom would be one of the greatest achievements of civilization. The technological processes of mechanization and standardization might release individual energy into a yet uncharted realm of freedom beyond necessity. The very structure of human existence would be altered, the individual would be liberated from the work world's imposing upon him alien needs and alien possibilities. The individual would be free to exert autonomy over a life that would be his [sic] own. If the productive apparatus could be organized and directed toward the satisfaction of the vital needs, its control might well be centralized, such control would not prevent individual autonomy, but render it possible.

This is a goal within the capabilities of advanced industrial civilization...
Herbert Marcuse
One-Dimensional Man



(note from Jack: too much like work to post on Saturdays here, too much traffic. Mondays could use a little anti-job, pro-freedom sentiment anyway.)

Anti-Job, Pro-Freedom Quote Of The Week 99 plus

Tom King, Indians and Corporations

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...the following statement by Ohiyesa (Santee Sioux) Charles Eastman: “The tribe claimed the ground, the rivers and the game; only personal property was owned by the individual, and even that, it was considered a shame to greatly increase. For they held that greed grew into crime, and much property made men forget the poor....Without a thought of same or mendicancy, the young, helpless and aged all were cared for by the nation that, in the days of their strength, they were taught and eager to serve. And how did it work out? Thus: Avarice, said to be the root of all evil, and the dominant characteristic of the European races, was unknown among Indians, indeed it was made impossible by the system they had developed” (Windwalker, 2002)

the Quechua Luis Espinoza has said: “Happiness is our natural condition and the main symptom of being in our right place.”
from
Frank Bracho
HAPPINESS AND INDIGENOUS WISDOM
In the History of the Americas

Lister Sinclair, 1921-October 16, 2006

Lister was a quiet, humorous, humanist radical

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"Fortunately, I have no faults of any kind. I am perfect in every way, perfect in intelligence, good looks, attractiveness and general wisdom. I have only one fault - I'm a liar."
Lister Sinclair

Anti-Job, Pro-Freedom Quote Of The Week 99 plus

go see Stivers



THE WORK ETHIC IN ACTION

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"I'd rather staplegun my eyes to my brain than input one more digit into one more spreadsheet, you overly-officious, jumped-up, sneering little tub-bucket"
Work Hate

Anti-Job, Pro-Freedom Quotes Of The Week 97, 98 plus

Fassel


A spiritual leader, Satish Kumar, prescribes leisure

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Despite a growing economy and rising productivity, hourly wages adjusted for inflation have declined 2 percent since 2003. Corporate profits, meanwhile, are at their highest share of gross domestic product since the 1960’s.
We are getting closer and closer to a work force with no benefits and no substantive protections. Some unions succumbed to corruption and contributed to their own decline.
from
Kicked While Down
Editorial
New York Times
Published: October 7, 2006


Congress was about to go into recess; bills passed in the
final days included a provision to allocate $70 billion
to the Pentagon for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq,
and a clause that will allow the president to define enemy
combatants at his discretion; the bill also legalized
torture and suspended the writ of habeas corpus.
HARPER'S WEEKLY
October 3, 2006

Zoom! Here it comes.

When the card is verified, the Zoom store’s robotic arm moves smoothly behind a clear glass panel to a shelf where the particular item is resting. A small pusher will scoot the item onto the arm, which gently transports the item to a nine-inch window located just below the touch screen. A door slides open, and optical technology senses when the customer has reached in to retrieve the item. As soon as the item leaves the window, the card is charged, thereby avoiding the most common frustration with vending machines: a cash loss when goods get jammed.

The editor of a Web site called kioskmarketplace.com, James Bickers, says America has never seen anything like the Zoom stores. “The psychological presence these things have is just amazing. It stops you, this monstrous vending machine that’s got iPods in it. Five years from now, we’ll have seen so many of these things, but right now it’s definitely got a wow factor.”

“Our guests love it,” says the Argent’s Fabiola Price. “It has things they wouldn’t expect and it’s open 24-hours. We love it because we can still offer our guests everything a gift shop would, but without all the overhead costs.”
from
Zoom systems website















Benjamin Hunnicutt, Robots for leisure.

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Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest private employer, is pushing to create a cheaper, more flexible work force by capping wages, using more part-time workers and scheduling more workers on nights and weekends.
…
But some Wal-Mart workers say the changes are further reducing their already modest incomes and putting a serious strain on their child-rearing and personal lives. Current and former Wal-Mart workers say some managers have insisted that they make themselves available around the clock, and assert that the company is making changes with an eye to forcing out longtime higher-wage workers to make way for lower-wage part-time employees.
…
They need to be doing some of this,” said Charles Grom, an analyst at J. P. Morgan Chase who covers Wal-Mart. It lets the company schedule employees “when they are generating most of their sales — at lunch, in the evening on the weekends.”

But Sally Wright, 67, an $11-an-hour greeter at the Wal-Mart in Ponca City, Okla., said she quit in August after 22 years with the company when managers pressed her to make herself available to work any time, day or night. She requested staying on the day shift, but her manager reduced her schedule from 32 hours a week to 8 and refused her pleas for more hours, she said “They were trying to get rid of me,” Ms. Wright said. “I think it was to save on health insurance and on the wages.”
…
But because Wal-Mart is such a giant — its $312 billion in sales last year exceeded the sales of the next five biggest retailers combined — its new labor practices may well influence policies more broadly.
from
Wal-Mart to Add Wage Caps and Part-Timers
NYT
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE and MICHAEL BARBARO
Published: October 2, 2006