I’ve dedicated a fair share of my time to catching up on some readings ,during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. I have no shortage of books, and I’ve decided to put most of them away for a couple of reasons. First I don’t have enough space for the bookshelves needed to hold all my books. Second, I feel overwhelmed when I look at all the books that I have. So to keep things simple, I keep a small bookshelf with 3 levels, and restrict myself to the books in it. And maybe few laying here and there.
Right now it just so happens that I’m into books that contain multiple topics. To make them easier to digest, I tell myself that I just have to read one section from each book. That way I can cycle through many of them without getting too bogged down or bored with any one topic. And to further make sure I’m getting the most from each one, I decided to make notes on each section that I read. Finally, to make it fun for myself, and as a way to develop content, I decided to write a post made from the notes I take in each section.
This way I can achieve multiple small goals. 1- I get to read (because I like reading and it’s important to me). 2- I slowly make my way through my many books. 3- I get to share what I’m learning. 4- I stay engaged with material and continually apply my philosophy degree.
All Work And No Play
The first book I want to start with is call “Upside Down” by Eduardo Galeano. And the section I read and will talk about is “Lessons For Resisting Useless Vices”. First, I was immediately intrigued by the title of this section because of the words “useless vices”. It got me asking several questions: 1- What is a vice? 2- What is a “useless vice”? 3- What is the difference between a useless vice and a useful vice? I had a lot more questions but I think these three will be more than enough.
So first, what is a vice? We typically think of a vice as some type of “bad” habit, or behaviour. We humans have an obsession with moralizing EVERYTHING, but that is a whole other can of worms. So in the absence of any religious text or deity, how can we tell if a habit/behaviour is bad? How can we tell what makes a “vice”? Something that is bad for our health? Something that keeps us from being productive and gets in the way of work/responsibilities? I guess…but if we also believe that everything in moderation also applies to bad habits, why can’t it apply to good habits as well? Why can’t work and responsibilities be considered vices?
Many of us seem to believe in this puritanical definition of work. Work must take precedence over everything else, or so it is said. Work happens at the expense of relationships to ourselves, our families and friends. There are endless stories about people who miss out on many good things with loved ones, because prioritize work above all else.
But why so much work? Well, according to what Galeano outlines in this section, it’s because for most people, work is a means to an end. Most of us have to work in order to survive. Food, shelter, clothing etc. All require money. We exchange our time and labour for a dollar amount. And most of the time, that dollar amount is a bunch of B.S. (just look at the rate of inflation…ridiculous!)
So the more we play, the less time we have for work, and vice versa. And remember, play doesn’t have to mean indulging in vices. Play can mean time with family, friends, loved ones. It can also mean engaging in physical activity, and other ways of maintaining optimum physical/mental/emotional health. And in this sense, Play as a whole, becomes a vice, because it takes up time that can be filled with work. So again I ask, why so much work?
Lesson 1: Work Hard And You Still Won’t Prosper
“The hustler lives from the fool, and the fool from his work” is a Spanish proverb that perfectly captures worker exploitation. I mean come on, no one REALLY believes that “work hard and you shall prosper”. Do they? If that were true then single black mothers working 3 jobs, just to barely make ends meet, would be rich! And I’m sure that women and children who work in sweatshops for 14-16 hours/day have something else to say about it.
But this isn’t to say that hard work isn’t important. That’s not what I’m saying. But as many privileged people who are born into riches prove, luck is much more important that hard work.
Lesson 2: No One Is Safe From Becoming Poor
Most of us are closer to becoming poor and homeless than we will ever be to becoming millionaires…are millionaires still considered “rich” now? Anyway, there is always a fear of losing one’s job, money, food, home. Bad luck can strike anyone. And the fear of that happening then motivates us to sell ourselves, our time, labour, life, for very cheap. In many cases people work in deplorable, life threatening and humiliating conditions.
And though more people in the west are refusing to work for such miserable conditions, landing a job is still celebrated as a miracle. No matter the pay and how demanding it is, we congratulate anyone who gets a job they applied for. And of course some jobs are better than others. But we know for example that many jobs in the service industry come with a high cost of burnout and low pay.
Globalization is viewed as a great thing that has allowed some countries to be economically prosperous. But it is also the reason that companies open their factories in very poor countries, where people’s labour is bought for pennies. Not to mention that people usually have no rights as workers.
Lesson 3: All Jobs Will Eventually Become Mechanized
Technology increases efficiency and production. We know this, machines can be much more productive than people. You can see it in grocery stores and shops: automated cashiers. I used to go to a Dollarama close to where we lived in Toronto, that went from 4-5 cashiers down to 1 cashier and 6 automated ones.
When machines are designed to do the work of humans, people become redundant. And in a sense that is a good thing. Many philosophers believed that machines would free humans from the shackles of labour, so that we have time to dedicated to other things. What other things do you ask? UHHHH I DON’T KNOW, SPACE EXPLORATION???? WE LIVE ON A DAMN ORGANIC SPACESHIP HURDLING THROUGH SPACE AT 2000 MILES/SECOND!!!! But hey…let’s see how many razor blades we can fit on one handle.
In many cases, labour is no longer needed to make money. “There is no need to transform raw materials, no need to lay a finger on them since money is fertile when it makes to itself” Galeano says (Galeano, p.166) And if that is the case, what happens to people when their labour is no longer needed? When they cannot sell the only thing they have left? Because under capitalism, your value is tied to your labour. And that means: if you can’t labour, because you’ve been replaced by a machine, then you have no value.
Lesson 4: More Work, Less Everything Else
There is a scary relationship between the fear of losing one’s job and the increase in the number of “Formal Working hours”. In the U.S., Canada, and Japan, for example, people are scared of losing their jobs that we will work outside of work. A salaried employee is expected to process all the work put in front of them. Often the work increases, but a much disproportionate rate than salary.
The irony is that while technological advancement revolutionizes productivity and efficiency it does not reduce working hours. And this leads to ridiculous amounts of stress. In the U.S. work is the highest source of stress, higher than losing someone to death or divorce. In Japan, “Karachi” which means “overwork” kills 10000 people each year.
Lesson 5: Companies Can’t Afford “Less Work”
The governments in France and Switzerland tried to propose shorter work weeks, and were immediately met with resistance. Politicians, businessmen and technocrats immediately jumped on them with lawyers and lobbyists. Take a look at any social media posts talking about a 4 day work week in Canada and you’ll find a slew of comments demonizing people who want to work less. The idea is to make people so afraid of losing their jobs and becoming poor, that they cannot even imagine working less (Galeano, p.168)
“Along with greed, fear has always been the most active engine of the system that used to be called capitalism.” Galeano p.170 If people work less, and less people work, companies can’t make profits. How could they? Who are they going to exploit?? Working as a personal trainer at my last job I’m all too familiar with this. When I tried to take 3 weeks off in December when my son was born, I was accused of losing my passion, and had to have a sit down with my manager to make sure I still wanted to work there. Ghouls.
Lesson 6: Blame Colonialism
People in the west, specifically white people in both Canada and the U.S. LOVE to bash and blame immigrants for “stealing jobs”. This has been a republican and conservative game that is played on a regular basis. How can we get more votes? Easy, tell them immigrants are gonna take their jobs, and our policies will keep immigrants out. Boom, vote secured. And of course this leads to hatred towards foreigners. Specifically, immigrants from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and East Europe. Why? Because they are able to sell their labour for cheap, out of desperation.
“They come from lands where conquering colonial troops and punishing military expeditions have disembarked a thousand and one times.” (Galeano, p.170) People don’t usually want to go through the hassle and trauma of leaving their countries, unless the conditions are really bad. And the conditions are usually bad because…Colonialism.
European and North American Expansion required hard and cheap labour. So what did they do? Hire immigrants, pay them very little, and threaten them with deportation to keep them in line. “Money from rich countries travels to poor countries attracted by dollar-a-day wages and twenty-five-hour-days, and workers from poor countries travel, or try to travel, to rich countries attracted by images of happiness served up by advertising or invented by hope.” (Galeano, p.171-172)
FINAL THOUGHTS:
In Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics we learn that meaningful human existence involved work and labour. Work has an intrinsic “good” about it. He also believed that leisure, and enjoyment for its own sake is also good. As such, any society or systems of power that prevent us from realizing both, is unjust and immoral.
But what does it mean when human labour is bought and sold at such a cheap price? Especially when it’s to the point where it devalues the human being through demoralizing and life threatening conditions.
We see human labour becoming more scarce and less valuable as atomization grows. Though now we are being told that there are “staff shortages” around the U.S. and Canada. And that people “don’t want to work”. But this is outright lies. People DO want to work. We just don’t want to work under unfair conditions.
People still compete for jobs, and as competition grows one of the bargaining chips is the willingness to work for less pay. Many companies are banking on this, and holding out until people cave and work for scraps.
Galeano himself mentions that some people have no choice in the matter. They must take jobs that pay very little, and work long hours. These people will end up suffering all kinds of health issues. I see so much of this in the health and fitness industry. Healthcare workers are patted on the back. Companies and governments put up signs thanking them…but they never pay them for all the extra work they do.
Personal trainers who wake up at 4 am and train clients until 8 pm are called glorified as being able to do what they love all day long. But trust me when I say that everyone has a breaking point. And just because some aren’t feeling it yet, doesn’t mean they won’t feel it eventually. After all, we’re all human…