|
|
"In these languid midsummer days, humans who feel the urge to take it easy
but remain burdened by a recalcitrant work ethic might do well to consider
that laziness is perfectly natural, perfectly sensible and shared by nearly
every other species on the planet."
Natalie Angier, New York Times, 30 July 1991 "I don't think there is, or ever again can be, a cure for unemployment. I propose that unemployment is not a disease, but the natural, healthy functioning of an advanced technological society."
Robert Anton Wilson, 1980 "I think that there is far too much work done in the world, that immense harm is caused by the belief that work is virtuous, and that what needs to be preached in modern industrial countries is quite different from what always has been preached ..." "... the road to happiness and prosperity lies in the organised diminuation of work."
Bertrand Russell, 1932 "20 years ago, Paul and Percival Goodman estimated that just 5% of the work then being done - presumably the figure, if accurate, is lower now - would satisfy our minimal needs for food, clothing and shelter." "A worker is a part-time slave."
Bob Black, 1985 "Contrary to the ideologically conditioned theory shared by sociologists, psychologists, and policy analysts ... recipients of guaranteed annual income who are relieved of most obligations to engage in labor do not fall apart."
Stanley Aronowitz & William DiFazio, 1994 "History's political and economic power structures have always abhorred 'idle people' as potential troublemakers. Yet nature never abhors seemingly idle trees, grass, snails, coral reefs, and clouds in the sky." "We find all the no-life-support-wealth-producing people going to their 1980s jobs in their cars and buses, spending trillions of dollars' worth of petroleum daily to get to their no-wealth-producing jobs. It doesn't take a computer to tell you that it will save both Universe and humanity trillions of dollars a day to pay them handsomely to stay at home."
Buckminster Fuller, 1982 "From a historical perspective, the cultural norm placing a moral value on doing a good job because work has intrinsic value for its own sake was a relatively recent development.... Work, for much of the ancient history of the human race, has been hard and degrading. Working hard - in the absence of compulsion - was not the norm for Hebrew, classical, or medieval cultures... It was not until the Protestant Reformation that physical labor became culturally acceptable for all persons, even the wealthy."
Roger B. Hill Ph.D.,1992, 1996 "If work were so pleasant, the rich would keep it for themselves." Mark Twain "We must begin to question the meaning of work and think about what it means to us personally. We must value our 'unproductive' labor - child care, house work, gardening, conversation, reading, cultural pursuits, art making, musing, day dreaming, napping, wasting time. All of these are necessary for a civilized society."
Poppy Dixon "All of my life I have thoroughly enjoyed working... The worst punishment for me would have been if my work had been taken away."
(Autobiography, 1959) "28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
29 And yet I say unto you,
30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, |