/anti

There are two sides to the antiwork community. Some people are saying, ‘We shouldn’t have to work at all’ and other people are saying that work just should be better.”—Penny, r/antiwork member

Vice on Reddit’s /antiwork

What work just should be better means? I’ll bite. It would mean decoupling income and quality of life from actual work. I think that’s what we all want: the ability to do (meaningful) work for which our lives are not completely depending on. That’s when we feel happy, satisfied and non-anxious.

A nurse saving people shouldn’t have to worry about housing, at all, ever. Same with a musician, if you want him to expand his skills and make people cry with his instruments. Same with the bum doing nothing, as if he has a place to live, he’ll do nothing there instead of in front of you in the streets, trying to finesse someone.

Win. Win. Win.

It’s simple really: capitalism has always succeeded for corporations and has stopped uplifting communities basically since the end of the 60s. Wages stayed the same while profits exploded ever since? The contract is broken; therefore capitalism has to go to the bench. We need fresh players here.

When you realize the system is deeply broken, do you try to change it or find a way to exist within it?

You create another one. You create new rules and stick to them. This is hard.

That’s the big issue with everyone trying to change the way things are: we only do it by reproducing a capitalist system, which means that we create the same discrepancies that we try to fight against. Look at crypto; it’s creating the same inequalities as fiat money, only now it’s a bunch of unaccountable dudes instead of a government (which is still quite accountable). Look at us and our little online shops, producing a few shirts to ship across the planet. Not sustainable, still flawed capitalism.

UBI. We’re wealthy as hell and collectively need to share more. Give people money. Let them rearrange their lives without absurd anxiety and stress. People will slow down, relax. Crime will fall the second people know that they are safe, that they can bounce back from whatever problem they face.

So integrate your governments head to toe, y’all. Proselyte, vote, federate efforts toward an actual, solid safety net. Enabling society, unlocking its full potential.

That’s what I really want to see.