Before we set about the task of explaining why the public does not need to
worry about whether or not lazy workers are going to receive the same pay
as everyone else, there is something very important that needs to be said.
If you added all the money that all the lazy workers of one generation
cost the society for all of their lives, collectively, they would probably
not be ripping off the society more than one Kerry Packer in one year. The
point that we are making is that the amount of money lost to the society
by lazy workers is minute compared to the amount of money lost to the
society by those people at the big end of the economy. And it would indeed
be a tragedy if the public allows the elite to continue to siphon off the
majority of the nation's wealth just to stop lazy workers getting away
with receiving as much pay as everyone else. And this is particularly so
when one's pay and one private and public lives are not going to change
regardless of whether or not lazy workers get away with it. After saying this however, there is no doubt that the public will
continue to be
encouraged by our capitalist constitution, our political and business
leaders, and the media to think this self-righteous and vindictive way
towards lazy workers rather than towards people who hold power and/or
wealth within our capitalist society. That is, they encourage us to look
down so that we don't think about looking up (at them), and unfortunately,
this strategy has been extremely successful within all
democratic-capitalist societies. And in doing so, these powerful people demonstrate just
how ruthlessly manipulative they are prepared to be when it comes to
maintaining their positions of power. In fact, one would have to be very
self-righteous and vindictive indeed to allow themselves to continue to be
economically and socially dominated, and to accept endemic corruption and
many other serious and completely unnecessary social and environmental
problems, just so a small group of people who one regards as being beneath
one's self, don't get away with being regarded by the state as equal to one. To
say this another way, one would be prepared to throw away $50B annually
so that lazy workers don't get away with wasting $1B annually.
To answer the title critique, in the AEM's
Egalitarian society, we certainly do have a number of ways to motivate all
workers to do their best in the workplace. Firstly,
while it is difficult to receive more pay than other full-time workers, it is not difficult or invalid to receive less pay. For
example, one may work less hours and therefore live at a lower
standard of living. In fact, many people will voluntarily choose this
option for
a variety of reasons. Similarly, some people may choose to do less
work in the same amount of time, and be paid by how much work they do.
However, there is nothing stopping an Egalitarian government from
enforcing lower pays on workers who don't perform as well as is expected
of them. For example, if one repeatedly produces 5 hours worth of work in
a 8-hour period: unless there is some valid reason for this, the state may
decide (after giving a warning) to only pay one for 5 hours worth of work.
This motivates such workers to either work harder or to change jobs to
something that they can be more competitive within (This policy doesn't
generally apply to workers with disabilities).
Secondly, everybody's performance in the
workplace, including people's success or failure in the working challenges
they choose to take on, as well as any extra work or study people
undertake in their spare time are evaluated in several ways, and these
evaluations are used to determine....
- who advances and who doesn't;
- who wins a vacant job or scholarship and
who doesn't;
- who is more able to direct their career
and who isn't; and
- who will gain more workplace autonomy
and who won't.
Therefore, people who are lazy will....
- find it more difficult to advance or
to remain competitive enough to keep certain jobs;
- find it more difficult to gain other
jobs or scholarships;
- have less ability to direct their own
careers; and
- find it more difficult to escape highly
supervised working conditions (although this does not mean
that most of the workers in supervised occupations are considered
lazy).
Of course, we do have a bit of latitude in
such matters as everyone can make the wrong decision when choosing jobs,
especially while they're young.
After saying this however, laziness is
often associated with working or being trapped in a job that one is not motivated by. There
is no doubt that the Egalitarian government has some responsibility, duty
of care, and even different expectations when selecting people with
different aptitudes for various jobs. Also, to a large extent, state organised career guidance is available to everyone, and therefore it may
often be just as much the fault of this state guidance that leads to
people undertaking jobs that they are not suited for. As such, the state
needs to acknowledge that the state and the particular workplace have some
bearing on whether or not workers are motivated to perform to the best of
their abilities, rather than to do what occurs now in our capitalist
society. That is, to lay all the blame on the individual worker, as part
of the process of denying that there is anything wrong with the capitalist
system or that particular boss or that particular place of employment.
Also, it should be recognised that
capitalism tends to create unmotivated and lazy workers. We all find it
easy to understand how higher wages motivate people to do their best and
to even work longer hours, but we tend to deny that low pays and the knowledge that one's working life is not
going to improve, serve to de-motivate people from giving their all. Also,
laziness may often be associated with depression, and depression is not
necessarily an irrational response to the circumstances of people's lives,
including their working lives. Generally however, unlike the capitalist
system, workers within the AEM's Egalitarian society will know that while
they may often be involved in work they don't like, they won't be stuck in
these jobs forever, or even all day, and that they are receiving the same
pay as everybody else, and these circumstances go along way to reducing
the de-motivation, laziness, and depression that capitalism serves to
induce in many people.
What we are saying is that to a large
extent, laziness is a social problem. That is, the circumstance of
society, and one circumstances within that society induce laziness in
individuals. As such, the state does have a fair amount of responsibility
in finding ways to
motivate people to want to do their best for their country, and to
keep them motivated. We believe that this is
best achieved when the people believe in their society, but it is
currently very difficult for many people within the capitalist society to
believe in their society when they....
- see the enormous gap between the rich
and the poor;
- know that they are always going to be
the working poor;
- know that life is only going to get
harder as prices and taxes rise;
- know that their children are going to be
disadvantaged because of their inability to escape lower wages;
- know that they are being socially
disadvantaged; and
- know that the funding provided to social
services is always going to be inadequate.
Some people may suggest that lazy people
will end up doing the easiest jobs simply because they can't be trusted to
hold more responsible positions. However, these jobs are generally out
competed for by older workers (who have paid their dues more because they
have had more time to do more work), and by the injured.
One last point, it is within the capitalist
society that workers often get away with being lazy because when they
change jobs (and employers), it is often easy to hide one's past slack
efforts when one has always been employed, and particularly when one has a
stable work history. One may also falsify the information on one's resume.
In the job interview, it is easy to sound enthusiastic, and sometimes,
past employers will often provide a slack worker with a good reference
just so other employers, who are following up on these references, stop
annoying them. But in the AEM's Egalitarian society, we
always know everything about your working life and efforts because
everybody works for the state, and as such it is impossible to out compete
others for a job by concealing one's past laziness.
It is also interesting to see what people
regard as laziness. We have been conditioned to automatically look at the
little people when considering what laziness is, but laziness is at work
in all levels of the workforce and society. Also, we believe that elitism is
motivated by laziness in that one is now able to have someone else do
one's work for one, including simple personal chores such as cooking and
ironing. After all, this is why many people want to be rich. Owning a
business and letting someone else manage it is motivated by laziness.
Marrying a rich partner, or someone who is prepared to support one, and
using this circumstance to quit working is motivated by laziness.
Remaining a housewife or househusband after the children no longer need
full-time care is motivated by laziness. Becoming a superviser or boss is
in part, usually sought as a means of escaping physical labour and this
could also be regarded as being motivated by laziness. And the higher one
gets in the chain of command often means doing less work by delegating it
to others, and many people truly do abuse these positions through being
motivated by laziness. Having a hit single or writing a best seller, and
then living off the royalties is motivated by laziness. To
retire early is motivated by laziness. Making
money by investing money is motivated by laziness. Suing someone for
millions is often motivated by laziness. Gambling, including gambling on
the stock market is motivated by laziness. Overcharging and conning people
are motivated by laziness. Claiming a higher wage is motivated by laziness.
Buying and selling at a profit is motivated by laziness. The
moral of this story is that within our capitalist society, lazy people are
ruling and economically abusing the society, and here you are worrying
about whether or not lazy people are going to receive just as much pay as
everybody else within an Egalitarian society.
