[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Yavicleus', '
')
I'm just curious, what do you do?

[Specop_007]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('0mar', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Specop_007', 'A') society of non workers has been tried.
Its called Communism.
And it invariably fails.

[PenultimateManStanding]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Specop_007', '
') On paper its simply the best system you could have, but in reality its just a miserable failure.

[Specop_007]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PenultimateManStanding', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Specop_007', '
') On paper its simply the best system you could have, but in reality its just a miserable failure.

[bart]

I'm not exactly sure how we got from JD's original post about "Life without Work" to communism. But here's a comment on both of them.

Re: communism
If Peak Oil proceeds as many people on this board predict, we will see a return of working class militancy and a wide spectrum of leftist movements. Inflation, a falling currency, rising energy costs -- all these will cause popular discontent, if history is a guide. Fascist movements are also a possibility. In any case, we'll see a return of strong central governments to manage the crises.

Our philosophies and political systems were developed over the last 200 years of fossil fuel economies; we are poised for the long descent to a solar economy. As economic and technological conditions change, our ideas will change.

Re: Life without work
Great thread, JD. I think there's a good chance that people will work less, but not because of government policy. Rather it will be joblessness due to economic disruption, as in the Great Depression. Governments will see that people don't go hungry -- otherwise they will face revolution.

People may not have jobs, but they won't be idle!

People will find a place in the informal economy, just as in 3rd World countries with high unemployment. People (especially women) will garden to make sure their families have healthy food and to earn some extra cash. Factories that have been closed may be taken over and run by groups of workers, just as in Argentina.

[johnmarkos]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('bart', '
')People will find a place in the informal economy, just as in 3rd World countries with high unemployment. People (especially women) will garden to make sure their families have healthy food and to earn some extra cash. Factories that have been closed may be taken over and run by groups of workers, just as in Argentina.

[frankthetank]

Have the Nazis come up yet (or Hitler)??? J/K

City of roughly 55K people and there are a little over 100 cops. Now realize that a lot of these cops are VERY lazy (and extremely fat) and therefore i wouldn't really think they would have much power in stopping mass crowds of people (we had a riot here once...i didn't turn out to good...) I also wonder how many would actually show up for work? not many.

Could the NG be sent in? Or are they all in Iraq still?

On paper Russia doesn't look that bad. Huge land mass (vast minerals), low populations, nukes up the wazoo, fighter planes. It might have collasped, but its still pretty much there, minus a few astan's

[TWilliam]

I think those Japanese have an excellent idea.

One of the greatest commentaries on this subject I've ever read:

Link

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'N')o one should ever work.

Work is the source of nearly all the misery in the world. Almost all the evil you'd care to name comes from working or from living in a world designed for work. In order to stop suffering, we have to stop working.

That doesn't mean we have to stop doing things. It does mean creating a new way of life based on play; in other words, a ludic revolution. By "play" I mean also festivity, creativity, conviviality, commensality, and maybe even art. There is more to play than child's play, as worthy as that is. I call for a collective adventure in generalized joy and freely interdependent exuberance. Play isn't passive. Doubtless we all need a lot more time for sheer sloth and slack than we ever enjoy now, regardless of income or occupation, but once recovered from employment-induced exhaustion nearly all of us [will] want [to] act. Oblomovism and Stakhanovism are two sides of same debased coin.

The ludic life is totally incompatible with existing reality. So much the worse for "reality," the gravity hole that sucks the vitality from the little in life that still distinguishes it from mere survival. Curiously—maybe not—all the old ideologies are conservative because they believe in work. Some of them, like Marxism and most brands of anarchism, believe in work all the more fiercely because they believe in so little else...

{Emphasis in original}

[PenultimateManStanding]

Oblomov, I got the novel and bookmarked it. This looks like it could prove enjoyable. The ludic economy: that's what we need, Specop. No need to trot out the old Marxist/Lenninist claptrap (unless its Groucho Marx and John Lennon we are to hail then I'm all for it)