If we can't understand that the more people we have to work the fields the more food we can produce then we've lost the fundamentals of providing for a fair society. Theres no need to pretend that it is acceptable to have competent, capable people not being rewarded for production whilst others are being rewarded for sitting around and wasting because its the 'humanitarian' thing to do.
What i understand is that despite the fact we have advanced technologically and have: labour saving devices, robots, computers and also women in the work place as well as men and access to a global workforce we are now working more hours than previous generations and have just seen our pensions go up in smoke.
Capitalism seems to produce endless rubbish that it doesn't need because it is obsessed with finding new things to sell. It can even create wants in people through public relations and manipulation of the masses through various media. One thing it creates a lot of is unnecesary jobs!
Have you ever read one of those studies that measures how much time office workers actually spend working? They usually find that large parts of the day are taken up passing the time for example being online, chatting at the watercooler, texting etc.
There are a whole load of non jobs and also a lot of jobs that are created by the capitalist system itself for example relating to money and its management.
So lets imagine you abolished money and the focus of society shifted from wants onto needs ie ensuring that everyone had what they needed. Suddenly all those capitalist jobs have dissapeared! Massed unemployment! However those people would then be free to go and help the other people doing the necessary jobs. As the saying goes 'many hands make light work'. What this could potentially mean is that everyone would have to work a whole lot less. As people would be freer in terms of what they did for a living and would be contributing directly to society it would cut down on the self esteem issues which often plague those out of work because they could choose how they wanted to contribute and would probably feel better about themselves knowing that what they were doing is directly useful to society.
Competant and capable people will still be able to be innovators but will be working for the greater good instead of filling their own pockets and then having some sort of mid life existentialist crisis wondering if all their efforts had actually amounted to anything as often happens in a capitalist society.
What you deposit is the opposite, that anyone who has the standards to provide and provide excess must by definition relinquish this to the state/community. This is a more cynical and unethical slavery than motivating those that can do more but will not do so.
I think you mean 'posit' not 'deposit' as the latter would indicate that i am verbally defecating and i like to think i'm contributing at least something to the discussion!
People will still be motivated to improve their community or the enterprise they are involved in because people like to do things well, when they feel good about what they are doing. they will always get the respect of their fellow workers and may even be elected to carry the mandate of the group to a higher level
In terms of motivation: people would be motivated because they would be reciveing the fruits of their labour. Under capitalism they do not usually....usually they just get a cut (a 'wage')....capitalism is not particualrly motivating really....just look on the faces of commuters going to work!
With capitalism the employer pays the employee just enough that they don't quit and the employee does just enough that they don't get fired. that's not efficient.
People will feel better when they have greater autonomy, greater control over their lives and their work conditions, have equal status (thus not feeling 'status anxiety') and recieve the fruits of their labour and feel positive about what they are doing (and can freely choose what they want to do)
People would be able to keep personal items but the means of production would be held by everyone.
The capitalist class would have to relinquish some assets its true, but in return everyone would be working less time per day. So what i'm saying here is the 1% give up the means of production and come and get their hands dirty with the rest of us and we all work less. That means we have more of our own free time to pursue the arts, science, socialise or whatever you want to do.
Profit margins wouldn't exist anymore and deadlines would mostly dissapear as well. Time would not be money. Time would be something everyone would have a lot more of.
Under capitalism it always seems to me that 3 things come into short supply: time, energy and money. Focussing on needs not want and everyone pulling together and sharing would provide a lot more time and energy. You'd be much freer to move around and change your role in society and probably without a horrible job interview as well!
Does that sound like slavery?
