Why Would Anyone Work Under Socialism?

Why Would Anyone Work Under Socialism? – Second Thought

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Citations and Further Reading:

Unemployment and jobs

Americans overworked

Engagement at work

Volunteering statistics

To each according to his contribution

Work and socialism

Cuban doctors

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Second Thought is a channel devoted to education and analysis of current events from a Leftist perspective. Welcome!

[ivanopizzorno]

They got us so brainwashed to believe we are lazy and its our fault if we arent super successful lol its hilarious and extremely sad.

[castleai]

During my gap year, I thought I'd just take a break and do nothing. That lasted for about a month, but then I felt a genuine urge to be productive. I enrolled on a part-time course and tried various jobs, all on my own terms as I could afford to live for a year without working. People do want to work, but on their own terms, not by coercion.

[vlddy]

As someone who is disabled and currently unable to work or study: yes, not working is hell and the longer you go not doing anything productive the more disconnected you become from those around you and from life itself. People want to work, just not under threat of death.

[deneskun.]

Fun fact: universal basic income has been tried in many places and it proved that people living with their basic needs met haven't left the work force. Kurzgesagt made a great video about it.

[senjacorn]

In Australia our previous government during the election claimed unemployment was at an all time low, to achieve this statistic they counted people working more than one job for each job they worked

[hebi]

My Grandpa and Grandma are retired. After about 3 weeks my Grandpa was already working on projects, he finally has time to do what makes him happy, Im proud of him for that. Hopefully in the future happiness from work wont be exclusive to retirement.

[TheGamingSyndrom]

I live in Europe and used my right to free education to get a pretty good degree, went to a government institution afterwards for work, however there was a 1 year evaluation period between sending my application and them accepting it; during that time i felt absolutly restless and bored out of my mind so i started doing a lot of volunteerwork.

I'd honestly say if i wouldnt have to work for money, i'd still do my job because i believe it has meaning and purpose for the whole of society.

I was in the US in 2020 and it honestly shocked me how many people worked in completly hostile work environments, slaving away with the only insentive being the green paper, often not even to have it but to get out of debt or avoid it.

[hajde]

Had a friend whose father grew up as a young adult during Tito's Yugoslavia. Said he enjoyed a short work week, was able to modestly support himself and still afford a small vacation home in Yugoslavia that he'd sometimes enjoy going to with his friends, and was very discouraged after moving to the US because of the war in the 90s and saw he has to work more and despite this, his former lifestyle is no longer feasible.

[sig]

People have always misinterpreted the need for humans to keep themselves busy and engaged with others with the grueling grind of working an often useless (or easily automated) job. These two things were never the same, but capitalistic rhetoric drummed the wrong definition into our heads. In their eyes not working makes you lazy, even though you could be studying a language, improving a skill or travel the world with the time saved from doing menial chores.

[frankenfurterr]

im disabled and sometimes i feel so useless not having a “real job” and as an artist im constantly learning new skills to be able to create things for profit but that is STILL looked down upon in society, people call you lazy for sleeping in, even tho you can still be doing things around the house or running errands :/ it’s exhausting

[machfassett]

Something that a lot of people don't get is that people actively WANT to work. I've talked to and heard of people whose dream jobs were: garbage truck, bus driver, street clean-up, school janitor (and trust me, as someone who goes into men's bathrooms and had experience in highschool boy's bathrooms, that one is certainly up there on stereotypically "gross" jobs), and probably more that I can't think of right now.

I'm disabled. I want to work. Partially because of money, partially because it's boring being disabled--I can't really do a lot! I spend a lot of my time writing stories and making art, but that's not fully fulfilling, especially on days where creativity and motivation are low since I get burned out very easily. If I could have a job, particularly something menial that doesn't require a lot of thinking (think something like sorting objects, making the same thing over and over, really just anything super repetitive that doesn't require standing or walking), I would jump at it in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, there are two issues with that:
1) Employers don't want to hire disabled people, especially visibly disabled people, as they believe us to be less capable than abled people in everything regardless of what the actual disability is.
2) That type of work isn't something I can easily find in my area, and I don't have access to anything that might give me better chances such as a higher level of education due to financial things.

If I, someone in constant, 24/7 pain that can be nearly anywhere in the body (typically joints and their surroundings--and guess what, there's joints nearly everywhere in the body) who struggles to walk on a good day and is a full-time mobility aid user, want to work, then you can probably bet that most people want to work, even if that work is something simple and menial and "boring". Humans weren't built to do nothing all the time.

[alishainc]

I think it would be amazing if we could spend more time to explore things we love. There would be so many more advances and so much more creativity. How you framed this concept was so thought provoking. I've always felt like we work to benefit the ones at the top but you verbalized it better than I could ever.

[TheSpeep]

As a hobby blacksmith, I feel pretty confident saying that people, even lazy people, will still want to work, even if that work is physically demanding and comes with an inherent risk of bodily harm.
Work can be fun, the problem is that a lot of work just sucks nowadays in ways it does not need to.

Blacksmithing is hard, tricky, exhausting work, and my hands are covered in small scars from cuts, burns and other injuries.
I dont make money off it either, I still do it, because I enjoy it.

[martianpudding]

Personally I think the most compelling argument for socialism is that it's already how we tend to instinctively organize on small scales. For example within a household chores are divided according to each person's age, time and ability, and usually mostly without any financial incentives. If a friend or family needed urgent help with something like childcare, nursing if they are sick or even housing if they become homeless, we would think of it as a decent thing to do to help them in what way we could, and we wouldn't make it into a transaction.

[thedutchgamelife]

i took a break from studying for a year, you know how hard it is to find a job when everyone wants you to have some sort of high degree?! im lucky with parents who run their own business and by that got a job, but my original plan wasn't even to work here in first place. the problem isn't that people 'dont want to work', its that companies are unrealistic with their demands

[viridiansexperimentchannel]

At this point I'm conflicted between "find another country to live in" and "keep trying to improve conditions where myself and most of my family are."

[Heyoka]

If the reasons people go to work are negative ones such as fear (of homelessness, ruin, etc.), instead of positive ones (ie wanting more money to do x and y), the society that results will be hellish.

[Artic_Blizzard]

i remember learning about need for cognition in psychology. i feel this can be applied here. some people have a low need for cognition. those people will filter into the easier jobs that some may consider boring. some have a high need for cognition. those people will filter into harder jobs that test their mental ability on a day to day basis. its just better than constantly having to choose between starving or freezing.

[ameba]

So... You're saying, that under socialism if some kind of job is unpleasant, we should raise the pay for it, so more people will be drawn to it? So the work is a commodity and the price of it is decided by the supply/demand/price laws? Interesting 🤔

[wvil]

This is 7 months old at this point but. I think honestly this is the best breakdown I've heard by someone who generally isn't overtly passionate in an offputting way that most people on the far left or far right are. top of that you brought up how it doesn't need to be perfect and it has plenty of problems but those can be amended. this is pretty good.