Tories and unemployment benefits

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pooley P
pooley Aug 14, 2008 17:01:17
Replying to grufty jim

grufty jim wrote:
pooley wrote:
It is an awful thing to treat unemployment as a crime, and should be fought all the way. It is, however, also a crime to treat unemployment as some kind of career choice. I know loads of people who wont get a job as they are better of on the dole, and one of them told me he was proud that he had taken more out of the system than he had paid in - tosser.....
The bloke you mentioned may well be a tosser. But I disagree with your main point. I feel we need to fundamentally change the way we view "work".

While on the one hand, 'work' may be synonymous with 'economic activity' it is also -- in physical terms -- 'the consumption of energy'.

Energy resources are about to become a defining issue for our society in my opinion and our success or failure in dealing with this issue will be decided by our ability to sustain ourselves in the face of a radical reduction in energy consumption / economic activity / work.

People should be given every incentive to live low-impact, low-energy, largely localised lives. To do this truly effectively would require a significant shift in how we organise society, as well as a shift in how we view economic activity (from something that should be maximised, to something that should be minimised).

I don't think anyone expects that kind of thinking to emerge from mainstream politics, but it's still galling to watch them work so hard to move even further to the other extreme.

That would be lovely, I agree. It is something to aspire to - but back in the real world, it aint ever gonna happen - sadly.

G grufty jim
grufty jim Aug 14, 2008 23:54:25
Replying to pooley

pooley wrote:
That would be lovely, I agree. It is something to aspire to - but back in the real world, it aint ever gonna happen - sadly.
I completely disagree with that. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that it is 100% certain that the changes I wrote about will occur.

The choice is not whether or not we will transition to a low-energy society. That choice doesn't exist. It will happen as we further draw down available energy resources. The only choice we have is how we go about it.

It can be done willingly, by actively directing our resources towards creating a sustainable society. This way will minimise the suffering and disruption that the transition will cause.

Alternatively, we can deny that the transition is necessary and spend all of our time and resources postponing the inevitable. By doing this, we are probably greatly increasing the total amount of disruption and suffering, as well as reducing the likelihood of even achieving the transition successfully.