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My father had one job, I've had six, my kids will have six at the same time

theguardian.com

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Re: My father had one job, I've had six, my kids will have six at the same time

#11

Post by gaius »

zby wrote: post #9

Maybe 'a job' is something that fitted a particular phase of our civilisation development and it just will fade away? A hunter gatherer (I bring this as my example - because as a species we spent most of our time in that phase) would do many things - but we would not call them jobs.

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. -- Robert Heinlein

Re: My father had one job, I've had six, my kids will have six at the same time

#12

Post by gaius »

csvan wrote: post #10
danieltillett wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assuming we have some sort of base income I agree.

Base income does not come out of nothing though. You need state income, which depends on taxation, which depends on people working and consuming.

Yes that is the elephant in the corner of the so-called "sharing" economy - who is paying their taxes, who is paying for the basic infrastructure that all these services piggyback on? You can't have Uber without well-maintained roads for example. You can't even have AirBnB without refuse collectors.

Re: My father had one job, I've had six, my kids will have six at the same time

#14

Post by danieltillett »

csvan wrote: post #10
danieltillett wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assuming we have some sort of base income I agree.

Base income does not come out of nothing though. You need state income, which depends on taxation, which depends on people working and consuming.

Of course, but if those working are efficient enough this can be supported. Once upon a time 99% of people were peasants and now we have the majority of the population providing non- essential services.

Re: My father had one job, I've had six, my kids will have six at the same time

#15

Post by sgt101 »

csvan wrote: post #10
danieltillett wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assuming we have some sort of base income I agree.

Base income does not come out of nothing though. You need state income, which depends on taxation, which depends on people working and consuming.

Unless the state owns the means of production.

What if the future is red?

Re: My father had one job, I've had six, my kids will have six at the same time

#16

Post by barry-cotter »

zby wrote: post #9

Maybe 'a job' is something that fitted a particular phase of our civilisation development and it just will fade away? A hunter gatherer (I bring this as my example - because as a species we spent most of our time in that phase) would do many things - but we would not call them jobs.

Maybe we wouldn't call them jobs and many people could have turned their hand to a lot of things that different people in the tribe did but returns to specialisation applies even at very low levels. I bet the best flint knappers spent more of their time practicing and thinking about their craft than the ones who did that and hunted as well.

Re: My father had one job, I've had six, my kids will have six at the same time

#17

Post by chii »

danieltillett wrote: post #14
csvan wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Base income does not come out of nothing though. You need state income, which depends on taxation, which depends on people working and consuming.

Of course, but if those working are efficient enough this can be supported. Once upon a time 99% of people were peasants and now we have the majority of the population providing non- essential services.

> majority of the population providing non- essential services.

'essentiality' doesn't come into the equation. Those who managed to amass a fortune being more efficient will want servants and other people to serve them (entertainers, sex workers, etc etc), which cannot easily be provided by machines. The economy will revert back to a fuedal one, where you become "owned" by the rich. Unless, of course, the people rebel, and bring on a socialist/communist form of gov't. I doubt that will happen though, becase the rich will see it coming, and nip it in the bud.

Re: My father had one job, I've had six, my kids will have six at the same time

#18

Post by pjc50 »

zby wrote: post #9

Maybe 'a job' is something that fitted a particular phase of our civilisation development and it just will fade away? A hunter gatherer (I bring this as my example - because as a species we spent most of our time in that phase) would do many things - but we would not call them jobs.

'Job' is the input side to which "rent/mortgage" are outputs.

'Job' is about continuity and stability; the ability to make commitments to regular expenditures required to maintain a particular standard of living. Highly variable income is bad for this. That's one of the reasons why people push back so hard on the "gig economy"; it brings the fear that you might not be able to make rent/mortgage next month and therefore lose everything you've built up.

Re: My father had one job, I've had six, my kids will have six at the same time

#19

Post by j4kp07 »

thorin wrote: post #13

Looking at a lot of job ads they want 5 developers for one job: sys admin, dba, software dev, ui, design...

That has been going on since the dawn of IT. It is a red flag for a management team (or recruiter) that doesn't really know what they are in search of.

Re: My father had one job, I've had six, my kids will have six at the same time

#20

Post by hellofunk »

I believe that "spreading yourself too thin" is a real thing, and a real disadvantage. In a theoretical world, you could have a specific specialization that you used in isolation for many different jobs simultaneously, but in reality, a "job" is about so much more than one individual skill. There is onboarding, learning the people and environment and tools and product that you work on, and a variety of other peripheral matters that require much of your time and learning curve before you get to apply the skill you've been hired to perform. And thus you end up with a lot of time spent on things that wouldn't be an issue if you concentrated on one job at a time for a decent period of time.
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