I just wanted to say thank you to my dear friends who have responded to my ramblings!
and have generously added their own! If once we START the discussion, who knows where
it may lead? Any and all information welcomed at any time... More when I have it!
And Mal, you evil man! Send the joke!
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Alternative Work
I am throwing this out there at you half-baked, but come on folks, I can't do ALL the thinking!
I have been looking at the idea of Alternative Work, as in, something different from what we have now.
This all started for me with the idea that Factory Work as done by Machines was supposed to give the Average Joe or Jane more "leisure time" and spare them the drudgery of boring, repetitive work, save them from the injury of dangerous or toxic work (like coal mining, just as one example), and even heavy physical labor.
Machines REPLACED us, alright, but that created unskilled unemployment instead of leisure time - for two reasons. It did not lend itself to "re-distribution of wealth" (owners did not re-invest saved labor costs into the neighborhoods, etc.) and we did not invent Next Level Work or Alternative Work.
Please understand me - I am not saying Machines are "bad" or that technology is to blame. Getting human beings out of the worst types of labor was/is a GOOD THING. But the Ethics of Ownership did not change, and the idea of WORK did not change. Ripping the machines out and going back to more manual forms of the same old labor will not work - and really, no one would DO it.
Factories produce cheap (as in low-cost to you) mass-produced products, that, you will notice, have become CHEAP the other way - as in made poorly and not lasting. We have become a Disposable Society. And this is a waste of resources. (And causes land-fills and garbage heaps.) We could, and should, demand BETTER PRODUCTS, and make the machine-worked factories better quality.
Also, we might take our new-found leisure time/unemployment, to learn to be craftsmen/women again - to become truly good at hand-making items of the HIGHEST quality, which might be sold to the rich and/or bartered for among the poor.
We might (those of us who are intellectually capable) return to school for higher and higher levels of education, which would include the Arts and Sciences more than it does now.
We might learn a better level of Customer Service psychology as well.
And the Business Owners would want to INVEST in this - provide stipends, living wages, while people are learning a Trade - because ultimately it would benefit them as well.
Certainly the Governments could do more - instead of spending 70 cents out of every tax dollar on the Military, they could re-invest in their PEOPLE and in the Infrastructure.
What kinds of work could I mean?
What does Society need? We have a terrible level of Homelessness in all countries now. Can we make relatively inexpensive homes? Provided to the most poor for free (paid for by Govt.), and available in ever-improving units to the people who could afford it. Perhaps they could be homes that re-cycled "grey water" (soapy bath water, dish water). Perhaps they could be fire-proof, flood-proof homes, run "off the grid" by alternative energy. Perhaps food could be grown on the roofs, and vehicles could be parked underneath, freeing up more dirt for food growing.
We need cleaner, safer transportation methods - for people and for goods. Something that might have no emissions. Some way that could eliminate accidents. Perhaps small "pods" with seats in them that run along rails... Perhaps transportation underground, to free up living and growing space ABOVE ground.
And what about that Infrastructure? Re-surfacing roads with gravel and half-melted asphalt chips lasts about one Winter. How about a better road surface? or at least replaced road surfaces? We have SEEN what is happening to our overpasses and bridges. (God bless the people of Minnesota recently, with the collapse of that I-35W bridge...) How about replacing the entire Electrical Grid, and placing the wires UNDERGROUND like they do in Europe, eliminating exposure of people to the harm caused by them, and protecting the wires themselves from the weather, car accidents, and sabotage? (And getting rid of those unsightly tar-painted poles...)
I would not be interested in inventing new toys for the rich or for the military. I would want to see products and services that make the lives of ALL people better - like vitamins did, for instance.
Inventors! I KNOW you are out there! Come on!
What would these types of work do for people? Well, right now, Society is "carrying" non-working people (and doing it poorly, I might add). We expect to provide for infants and school-age children. We are learning to expect to pay for elderly, retired people (we could do this better). We will have a whole new generation of disabled and ill people from the Wars. We do not much at all help the mentally ill. And we tolerate and barely help pregnant women and new parents, who have to drop in and out of work for the baby's health and education needs.
If there were light, clean, safe work that anyone in these groups COULD or WOULD WANT to do, that would make them employable again; it would make them re-enfranchised. I am not talking about BORING BUSY WORK. But the re-tooling of NEEDED work, that cannot be done by machines, and MIGHT be done by people who were not intellectually capable of higher level work, as well as the people I have mentioned in these other groups (leaving out infants).
Before you start screaming "exploitation!", ASK PEOPLE if they wouldn't rather earn their own money and do something productive, rather than feel "tolerated and carried".
If more of us worked - we might ALL work less hours, at better work - we'd make better products and give better service. And we could create a level of living that is HIGHER for all, a level of material wealth that we have not yet seen - for EVERYONE. If we had to, we could STILL "carry" folks that could not work, and even they would live at a standard that is better than what they have now.
Please imagine a time when even the poorest person could live in a clean, lit, warm/cooled home with clean water and a basic diet and clean, fitted clothing. He or she might have the Health Care they lack now, there would be a community to which they would belong... They could travel anywhere safely as they needed to...
HELP ME. Think of ways we might DO this. Why should we not? At other times in History, success was measured in how well even the poorest person lived and was treated. As part of our Vice-Gerency on the Planet, we owe some thought and work time to the People too. When you have everything that you NEED, and can work to get the things that you WANT, when you can be CREATIVE and productive at all stages of your life, when you can SEE the help that you are being - you become GENEROUS. It's EASY to want to give back...
So let's DO it.
I have been looking at the idea of Alternative Work, as in, something different from what we have now.
This all started for me with the idea that Factory Work as done by Machines was supposed to give the Average Joe or Jane more "leisure time" and spare them the drudgery of boring, repetitive work, save them from the injury of dangerous or toxic work (like coal mining, just as one example), and even heavy physical labor.
Machines REPLACED us, alright, but that created unskilled unemployment instead of leisure time - for two reasons. It did not lend itself to "re-distribution of wealth" (owners did not re-invest saved labor costs into the neighborhoods, etc.) and we did not invent Next Level Work or Alternative Work.
Please understand me - I am not saying Machines are "bad" or that technology is to blame. Getting human beings out of the worst types of labor was/is a GOOD THING. But the Ethics of Ownership did not change, and the idea of WORK did not change. Ripping the machines out and going back to more manual forms of the same old labor will not work - and really, no one would DO it.
Factories produce cheap (as in low-cost to you) mass-produced products, that, you will notice, have become CHEAP the other way - as in made poorly and not lasting. We have become a Disposable Society. And this is a waste of resources. (And causes land-fills and garbage heaps.) We could, and should, demand BETTER PRODUCTS, and make the machine-worked factories better quality.
Also, we might take our new-found leisure time/unemployment, to learn to be craftsmen/women again - to become truly good at hand-making items of the HIGHEST quality, which might be sold to the rich and/or bartered for among the poor.
We might (those of us who are intellectually capable) return to school for higher and higher levels of education, which would include the Arts and Sciences more than it does now.
We might learn a better level of Customer Service psychology as well.
And the Business Owners would want to INVEST in this - provide stipends, living wages, while people are learning a Trade - because ultimately it would benefit them as well.
Certainly the Governments could do more - instead of spending 70 cents out of every tax dollar on the Military, they could re-invest in their PEOPLE and in the Infrastructure.
What kinds of work could I mean?
What does Society need? We have a terrible level of Homelessness in all countries now. Can we make relatively inexpensive homes? Provided to the most poor for free (paid for by Govt.), and available in ever-improving units to the people who could afford it. Perhaps they could be homes that re-cycled "grey water" (soapy bath water, dish water). Perhaps they could be fire-proof, flood-proof homes, run "off the grid" by alternative energy. Perhaps food could be grown on the roofs, and vehicles could be parked underneath, freeing up more dirt for food growing.
We need cleaner, safer transportation methods - for people and for goods. Something that might have no emissions. Some way that could eliminate accidents. Perhaps small "pods" with seats in them that run along rails... Perhaps transportation underground, to free up living and growing space ABOVE ground.
And what about that Infrastructure? Re-surfacing roads with gravel and half-melted asphalt chips lasts about one Winter. How about a better road surface? or at least replaced road surfaces? We have SEEN what is happening to our overpasses and bridges. (God bless the people of Minnesota recently, with the collapse of that I-35W bridge...) How about replacing the entire Electrical Grid, and placing the wires UNDERGROUND like they do in Europe, eliminating exposure of people to the harm caused by them, and protecting the wires themselves from the weather, car accidents, and sabotage? (And getting rid of those unsightly tar-painted poles...)
I would not be interested in inventing new toys for the rich or for the military. I would want to see products and services that make the lives of ALL people better - like vitamins did, for instance.
Inventors! I KNOW you are out there! Come on!
What would these types of work do for people? Well, right now, Society is "carrying" non-working people (and doing it poorly, I might add). We expect to provide for infants and school-age children. We are learning to expect to pay for elderly, retired people (we could do this better). We will have a whole new generation of disabled and ill people from the Wars. We do not much at all help the mentally ill. And we tolerate and barely help pregnant women and new parents, who have to drop in and out of work for the baby's health and education needs.
If there were light, clean, safe work that anyone in these groups COULD or WOULD WANT to do, that would make them employable again; it would make them re-enfranchised. I am not talking about BORING BUSY WORK. But the re-tooling of NEEDED work, that cannot be done by machines, and MIGHT be done by people who were not intellectually capable of higher level work, as well as the people I have mentioned in these other groups (leaving out infants).
Before you start screaming "exploitation!", ASK PEOPLE if they wouldn't rather earn their own money and do something productive, rather than feel "tolerated and carried".
If more of us worked - we might ALL work less hours, at better work - we'd make better products and give better service. And we could create a level of living that is HIGHER for all, a level of material wealth that we have not yet seen - for EVERYONE. If we had to, we could STILL "carry" folks that could not work, and even they would live at a standard that is better than what they have now.
Please imagine a time when even the poorest person could live in a clean, lit, warm/cooled home with clean water and a basic diet and clean, fitted clothing. He or she might have the Health Care they lack now, there would be a community to which they would belong... They could travel anywhere safely as they needed to...
HELP ME. Think of ways we might DO this. Why should we not? At other times in History, success was measured in how well even the poorest person lived and was treated. As part of our Vice-Gerency on the Planet, we owe some thought and work time to the People too. When you have everything that you NEED, and can work to get the things that you WANT, when you can be CREATIVE and productive at all stages of your life, when you can SEE the help that you are being - you become GENEROUS. It's EASY to want to give back...
So let's DO it.
Why grass?
First, let me answer the question about Solar Energy that was asked.
At the present time, the solar panels are expensive, physically large, and heavy (people have to have their rooves re-enforced to hold the weight), so they are not yet practical for most people.
Secondly, we have yet to solve the intermittent sun problem, particularly in the Northern areas of our countries, which get significant cloud-cover and also snow. The sunlight would have to be able to get to the panels and the panels would have to be free of any surface debris in order to receive it.
Ok now something new for you all to consider.
A quote from Freeman Dyson's recent book - page 60 - "A field of corn growing in full sunlight in the middle of the day uses up all the carbon dioxide within a meter of the ground in about 5 MINUTES (emphasis mine). If the air were not constantly stirred by convection currents and winds, the corn would not be able to grow."
So here is my question to you - why don't we plant CORN along our ROADS? Not the type we might want to EAT afterward, but perhaps the type we could make bio-diesel out of, or let the animals eat and nest in freely.
It has been shown that increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere makes plant leaves small-pored (less water loss) and makes plants grow a larger root base. Roots hold topsoil, so that water and wind would not be able to take it away as quickly. And in Winter, molds and fungi live on the roots, creating more topsoil. If we increased the topsoil in JUST THE USA by 1/2 an inch, we might ELMINATE, world-wide, the current carbon dioxide imbalance caused by industry and car exhaust.
So why are we growing GRASS instead?
I am asking these as serious questions. If you know something more than I do, please, share it. But does it not seem to you that this might WORK?
Freeman Dyson's (inventor of the Dyson Sphere - Google it, folks - get smarter!) book is called "The Scientist as Rebel" c 2006.
I would also recommend we read two Russian authors that he mentions - I can't wait to get these myself! The first is "The Earth's Biosphere" by Vaclav Smil c 2002, and the second, and possibly more important, is "The Biosphere" by V.I. Vernadsky, published in English translation for the first time in 1998. Dr. Vernadsky is the inventor of the term "biosphere", from the late 1920's/early 1930's, and his book is said to contain a HUGE Bibliography of source material. That sounds worth a look to me.
Happy reading!
At the present time, the solar panels are expensive, physically large, and heavy (people have to have their rooves re-enforced to hold the weight), so they are not yet practical for most people.
Secondly, we have yet to solve the intermittent sun problem, particularly in the Northern areas of our countries, which get significant cloud-cover and also snow. The sunlight would have to be able to get to the panels and the panels would have to be free of any surface debris in order to receive it.
Ok now something new for you all to consider.
A quote from Freeman Dyson's recent book - page 60 - "A field of corn growing in full sunlight in the middle of the day uses up all the carbon dioxide within a meter of the ground in about 5 MINUTES (emphasis mine). If the air were not constantly stirred by convection currents and winds, the corn would not be able to grow."
So here is my question to you - why don't we plant CORN along our ROADS? Not the type we might want to EAT afterward, but perhaps the type we could make bio-diesel out of, or let the animals eat and nest in freely.
It has been shown that increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere makes plant leaves small-pored (less water loss) and makes plants grow a larger root base. Roots hold topsoil, so that water and wind would not be able to take it away as quickly. And in Winter, molds and fungi live on the roots, creating more topsoil. If we increased the topsoil in JUST THE USA by 1/2 an inch, we might ELMINATE, world-wide, the current carbon dioxide imbalance caused by industry and car exhaust.
So why are we growing GRASS instead?
I am asking these as serious questions. If you know something more than I do, please, share it. But does it not seem to you that this might WORK?
Freeman Dyson's (inventor of the Dyson Sphere - Google it, folks - get smarter!) book is called "The Scientist as Rebel" c 2006.
I would also recommend we read two Russian authors that he mentions - I can't wait to get these myself! The first is "The Earth's Biosphere" by Vaclav Smil c 2002, and the second, and possibly more important, is "The Biosphere" by V.I. Vernadsky, published in English translation for the first time in 1998. Dr. Vernadsky is the inventor of the term "biosphere", from the late 1920's/early 1930's, and his book is said to contain a HUGE Bibliography of source material. That sounds worth a look to me.
Happy reading!
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