Art of Climbing Trees

Resources

Us. Getting the work done – or not. Work

With eight billion people and counting, there are plenty of people to do the necessary work to provide us with sensible abundance. The biosphere also needs us to de-escalate our activity/extract and transform fewer resources. A de-growing economy may, in fact, seek to find disincentives for activity; to even incentivise a level of what we now call ‘quality laziness’; to spread the work among more people and allow more energy for personal quality time; a more flexible human/animal approach*. (As it happens, a reduced working week also correlates with using fewer resources). Our 15-minute cities (below) and a 100-mile/160-km (or less) food system¹⁴⁴ will be incentivised by TEQs and TRQs and also inform many changes to how work is organised and carried out, i.e., the long daily commute and its opposites: local employment or working from home.

The Eutopian economy aims to liberate us from unhealthy/unnecessary forces that currently motivate us – away from the abstractions of chasing money/debts, and towards ours and the planet’s other inhabitants’ needs – first, then desires³³⁴. 

Anyone needing extra resources above their PAC for a personal project, for R&D, or to meet a need can apply to UBS or initiate a GRREE project.

Our no-obligation UBI/UBS reduces financial motivation, making work largely voluntary and underpinned by the individual’s belief in the project/employer’s vision (reciprocal obligation/a sense of social responsibility) and the joy or need of action/participation. We can then more easily make ethical decisions about where we direct our energy and allow more time for finding our niche and/or innovating (writing books in trees, for example).

Working hours are not legally limited. However, there could be no expectations of working more than three days/15-21 hours per week**. (In the case of seasonal agrarian farm work, spring and autumn sowing and harvesting naturally demand longer days, and summer and winter often demand shorter days). The emphasis is on changing cultural expectations rather than prescribing rigid rules. We may consider my previous calculations¹⁴⁷, suggesting an extra 10 hours per week invested during the first phase of transition to get us out of the emergency (for panic planting²⁷, recalling and dismantling the poisons³⁰⁰, trauma therapy¹⁰⁴, etc.)

Ideally, we can think less in terms of prescribed hours of labour but instead, become more sensitive to what is healthy for our lives in balance with our obligations and create more room for negotiation. 

Some jobs need to be done to keep us fed, watered, warm, dry, and amused. A holistic job centre, or Time/Energy Exchange (TEE), can exist, which lists UE positions alongside those from private enterprises, including individuals needing specific help or support, i.e., childcare, loneliness mitigation/friendship, and local conflict mediation. (I envisage greater citizen engagement of how and what work needs doing as we organise many of our Essential (municipal) services via local polycentric forums. And wider polycentric circles will, of course, facilitate projects crossing (soft) international borders).

There are many arguments for supporting a disparity in wages, such as variable responsibility/stress and the time/energy invested in preparatory education. A doctor might train for six to eight years or more, compared to a cleaner’s zero, for example. However, there are only limited positions for doctors, senior managers, and other higher-paid specialists in society, which means the vast majority, regardless of their skills, qualities, and efforts, will always be stuck with less power and comfort. To accept our society’s reasons for wage differences is to accept systemic inequality.

Dangerous, dirty, boring/repetitive jobs that no-one really wants to do can offer a reduced input/shorter working week for the same reward. (This can be decided market-style and/or via worker’s unions that operate within the polycentric governance system.) The reward for people doing these jobs is then more personal time instead of more money, preventing the manifestation of financial/power differentials and the eventual corruption of democracy, again). Short contracts and a fast rotation of employees (with the above terms) is another option, so no-one is being asked to shorten their lives doing dangerous work every day. (I could be willing to spend a few weeks a year digging up the jumble of toxic waste we’ve hidden in landfills to stop their run-off into the water table, but I don’t want to make it my life’s work, for example). This rotation entails things taking longer while novices are trained, but we are allowing ourselves to slow down for a healthier, fairer society. If people are unwilling to do a job, we can also ask if it really needs doing or whether we can find a better, more agreeable way of doing it. Automation/robotics/AI is already usurping many workers and is expected to continue doing so. We can choose to increase this trend for the undesirable work. 

Though many jobs and projects can transition smoothly, the neo-reformation will leave many projects currently underway unfinished. Workers motivated by cash flows in the old financial system will suddenly have questions to answer: ‘Do we finish this skyscraper, or should we dismantle it and build a bridge instead?’ ‘Is my time better spent helping to insulate my neighbour’s house? Teaching programming or sport at the local school, growing pumpkins, researching/practising desertification reversal, carbon sequestration, discovering other cultures, learning the drums, or farting about?

So, the first outcome of implementing EAT findings will be that millions of people will be incentivised (or in some cases forced) to stop making and doing non-essential Grey Resource activities. Savings are then quickly made on Grey Resources and associated energy, and our multi-faceted transition project receives an immediate boost of people power.

COVID-19 showed us just how much of what we do can be stopped overnight without a total system collapseθ. (We will, of course, see catastrophic results by continuing as we are). Our intentional Transition will be different because we will all feel the security of a UBI and UBS. We won’t be isolated in our homes with nothing to do but count our hoards of toilet rolls while skilfully avoiding our emotions with hours of Netflix. 

Please try using the (efficient) ‘Six Thinking Hats’ method of parallel thinking for sharing your ideas.
It helps us to organise our thoughts and feelings. Wear the Black Hat for critisism/doubts; the Green hat for creative suggestions; the Yellow for positive responses, Red for gut feelings; White for information. I am wearing the Blue Hat now, when I say we are here to design Eutopia.

Simply write ‘Black’, ‘Yellow’, ‘Green’, etc, before your given response. Then, start a new paragraph for ideas of a different coloured hat.