Anti-Wage-Slavery, Pro-Freedom Quotations 185-186

I brag about what I can't do and don't know.
I take off my clothes to those I oppose.
I'm so far beyond lazy, I work like a god.
I'm totally crazy; in fact that's my job.
Rob Brezsny











Everyone who is calm and sensible
is insane.
Rumi

Anti-Wage-Slavery, Pro-Freedom Quotations 183, 184

We cannot measure . . . national achievement by the gross national product. For the gross national product includes air pollution and advertising for cigarettes ... it does not allow for the health of our families, the quality of their education or the joy of their play ... neither for the justice in our courts, nor for the justice of our dealings with each other ... It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.

Robert Kennedy

From the point of view of the economy, the sale of weapons is indistinguishable from the sale of food. When a building collapses or a plane crashes, it’s rather inconvenient from the point of view of those inside, but it’s altogether convenient for the growth of the gross national product, which sometimes ought to be called the "gross criminal product."
Eduardo Galeano

Anti-Wage-Slavery, Pro-Freedom Quotations 181-182

It might be a bit of a political challenge to define happiness as a legitimate policy objective. Imagine the Republican outrage when the umpteenth tax cut didn’t do the trick. Democrats would likely slam the effort as regressive, distracting from efforts to improve the lot of the less fortunate by more conventional measures — like income.
…A notorious study in 1974 found that despite some 30 years worth of stellar economic growth, Americans were no happier than they were at the end of World War II. A more recent study found that life satisfaction in China declined between 1994 and 2007, a period in which average real incomes grew by 250 percent.…More broadly, if the object of public policy is to maximize society’s well-being, more attention should be placed on fostering social interactions and less on accumulating wealth. If growing incomes are not increasing happiness, perhaps we should tax incomes more to force us to devote less time and energy to the endeavor and focus instead on the more satisfying pursuit of leisure.

All They Are Saying Is Give Happiness a Chance

By EDUARDO PORTER

New York Times

Published: November 12, 2007

Every increase in joy a society can provide for will do more for the ethical education of its members than all the warnings of punishment or preachings of virtue could do.
Erich Fromm

Anti-Wage-Slavery, Pro-Freedom Quotations 179-180

I’m female and I work for a retail chain, HBC (Zeller’s) in Canada. In the past 3 months which I have worked there, 2 of my fellow employees have been put on anti-depressants, one has developed a bleeding ulcer and the rest just plod along like dairy cattle. The lifer’s as I refer to them (10+ years) are the most miserable lot of women (and 3 men) I’ve ever met.
…
Conditioned sheep, the lot of us, and too afraid to do anything about it, for fear of losing our lousy, thankless, horrible jobs. By the way, most of us are single mothers struggling to make ends meet from paycheck to paycheck.

Fiona Bateson

September 29th, 2007 10:09 pm

The man was nearly deaf. “He won’t wear hearing protection!” exclaimed his exasperated wife. I turned to the man and asked if this was true. He nodded and confessed that none of the guys at work wore hearing protection.
Feminists would describe this behavior as workplace machismo, or male toughness. Marxists would describe it as false consciousness, where workers fail to recognize their class interests, in this case, to protect their health on the job.
I suspected something else, so I replied, “I think I understand. If you value your hearing, then you are valuing yourself, and that would create conflict in a job where you are not valued.” His eyes widened in recognition. Then he looked at the floor and nodded.
Machismo at Work: False Consciousness or Self Defense?
by Susan Rosenthal

September 29th, 2007