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I just love this.  Completely agree on the "support leisure" point.  I'm thinking of Juliet Schor who wrote about the overworked American--comparing the typical work year with that of Europeans, who supposedly work many fewer days in the year and are forced to take 4-6 vacation whether they want to or not.  Her point was that instead of getting a bigger salary/wages, we should have the option of getting more time off.  (Published somewhere in the 1990s I believe, and doesn't really take into account what I assume is the relative difficulty of actually getting one of these jobs in Europe, considering the Paris riots a while back and other such street protests, er, dancing?)

http://www.amazon.com/Overworked-American-Unexpected-Decline-Leisure/dp/046505434X

Educating women is one of the cheapest things that can be done in a developing country since teachers are paid at the local wage level and there is no need for massive development or trade policies to be put in place. There is also little scope for corruption which may be why this isn't a more popular option.

Because if women are more educated, they might start asking questions, thinking for themselves, objecting, etc.

 I don't believe there are too many people, but it is probably a matter of faith than anything else.  

You say that even with all the "make-work" jobs, there is still high unemployment.  Should we consider some of those who are priviledged to rake in some of that "excess" money in the financial sector, especially in speculation, as engaged in rather lucrative make-work, and essentially unemployed?  

by jjellin on Fri Apr 17th, 2009 at 05:34:23 PM EST
well done! great diary, it addresses a very important misunderstanding we have inculcated into our cultures that if you're groaning under the load, you're not responsible, and if you're not stressed, you're lazy.

this has boiled so much fun out of people, it's unreal.

back in the seventies, a friend once told me, 'the biggest problem we'll have in the future is what to do with all the leisure time'.

sounds good, i thought, (having grown up with two workaholic parents), and these last 40 years, i've seen how it just might be true, though the other side of the coin is that we might have to work harder too, which need not be mutually exclusive.

the internet alone can be so endlessly diverting, then there's games, dvds, hobbies, crafts, arts...

you can even stomach doing something pretty braindead for 3 hrs a day, if you know you have the rest of the day and the evening off.

....and can still afford to live...

another thing that occurs to me is the more unemployment, the more time to talk with your neighbours and try to discern what's really going down, instead of assembling widgets all day in grimy noise, impossible to chat, and too exhausting to nurture a hobby in the evenings.

the more people 'doing nothing' the more awake people will become, especially with the toobz spreading info ahead of, and more truthfully than the dwindling, drooping, propaganda organs of tradmed.

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Fri Apr 17th, 2009 at 07:21:15 PM EST
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Where is techno when we need him.....?

"The future is already here -- it's just not very evenly distributed" William Gibson
by ChrisCook (cojockathotmaildotcom) on Fri Apr 17th, 2009 at 07:31:02 PM EST
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AFAIK he quit after a tiff over the journalistic standards of a major US newspaper.

Most economists teach a theoretical framework that has been shown to be fundamentally useless. -- James K. Galbraith
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Fri Apr 17th, 2009 at 07:35:02 PM EST
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I had similar thoughts while reading a set of Chris Cook's comments which were actually a back and forth that he had with a pretentious capitalist carnival hawker.

Where exactly is the rule that everyone must work? At one time, there were streams that one could fish in and forests for fungus and fowl. Wasn't maybe what everyone might call the greatest thing in the world, what with having to support a witch doctor or two and perhaps a sprog or two. And, of course, I'm thinking of California where I was raised. Acorns and fish all gone now, the rivers and the forests commercialized and freeway'd.

So, now because the highrise building owner paid someone some rubies or rupies or something, the dried up river bed is his and the cement companies upstream and anyone's but the oak trees or the polluted oceans.

Less healthy should I get? Well, individually, who cares says the AynRandian. But if the group gets sick enough to threaten the worker supply or get those upper classes sick, then it is suddenly a group problem worthy of study. And the cure becomes, ahh, not the groups of course. Because the laws say that the corporation gets the nod for making it flower.

That law stuff is sublime, ain't it. Those randians sure do complain about it and the fact of its complexness, but they sure do find the holes to quiver through, which at a later date requires new laws...and something more for them to be proud of when they quiver through that, and complain some more.

Well, I shall complain no more. Just had a few thought dripping from my fingertips.

Cya melo and thanks.

Never underestimate their intelligence, always underestimate their knowledge.

Frank Delaney ~ Ireland

by siegestate (siegestate or beyondwarispeace.com) on Mon Apr 20th, 2009 at 04:14:55 PM EST
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Her point was that instead of getting a bigger salary/wages, we should have the option of getting more time off.

The fact that this isn't an option is proof that we are universally underpaid.

you are the media you consume.

by MillMan (millguy at gmail) on Sat Apr 18th, 2009 at 09:52:34 AM EST
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Oh, absolutely.
by jjellin on Sat Apr 18th, 2009 at 10:20:15 PM EST
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