The Right to Be Lazy (1883)
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The Right to Be Lazy (1883)
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Re: The Right to Be Lazy (1883)
#2No post body was provided.
Re: The Right to Be Lazy (1883)
#3Some additional info.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Right_to_Be_Lazy
Definitely an interesting way to look at the world.
Re: The Right to Be Lazy (1883)
#4Some additional info. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Right_to_Be_Lazy Definitely an interesting way to look at the world.
What an ironically privileged position, considering how much he calls out the bourgeoisie.
Re: The Right to Be Lazy (1883)
#5Some additional info. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Right_to_Be_Lazy Definitely an interesting way to look at the world.
> According to Lafargue, wage labour is tantamount to slavery
It does seem to be quite useless way to look at the world.
It seems that they are unaware of what slavery actually means or deliberately mislead. Or Wikipedia is inaccurate.
Re: The Right to Be Lazy (1883)
#6Love this. I tend to be lazy at least every Thursday+Friday. I did a little work during that Argentina WC game just now and am now logged off for the day after two hours of distracted work.
Luckily, I'm stretching some work from Wednesday with sawdust ;) so no worries
Remote work really has been a game-changer this last decade. I've gotten effectively paid to have fun more than to work.
I think I'll go work on an art project I've been putting off now..
Re: The Right to Be Lazy (1883)
#7Some additional info. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Right_to_Be_Lazy Definitely an interesting way to look at the world.
> According to Lafargue, wage labour is tantamount to slavery It does seem to be quite useless way to look at the world. It seems that they are unaware of what slavery actually means or deliberately mislead. Or Wikipedia is inaccurate.
It's meant in the sense of "coerced into working." Eg if you don't have a viable alternative to working, did you choose work freely? Everyone using this comparison from that time period knows it's an extreme metaphor and is using it at least partially for the shock value of the comparison, to jar people into seeing the everyday pressures in a different way.
They aren't comparing the conditions of slavery to the conditions of wage labor, just that the force that compels a proletarian worker to work is on the same continuum with the force that compels a slave to work.
Re: The Right to Be Lazy (1883)
#8Some additional info. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Right_to_Be_Lazy Definitely an interesting way to look at the world.
What an ironically privileged position, considering how much he calls out the bourgeoisie.
> Automation, which had already come a long way in Lafargue's time, could easily reduce working hours to three or four hours a day. This would leave a large part of the day for the things we really want to do, such as to spend time with friends, relax, enjoy life, and be lazy. Lafargue argues the machine is the saviour of humanity but only if the working time it frees up becomes leisure time. The time that is freed up is usually converted into more hours of work, which he compares to more hours of toil and drudgery. Working too many hours a day is often degrading, while working very few hours can be very refreshing and enriching, leading to general advancement, health, joy, and satisfaction.
Doesn't seem like a privileged argument. If the needs of a society can be met with 3-4 hours of work a day and automation for the rest, fighting to work only 8 hours a day does seem to miss the mark. Whether 3-4 hours of work a day is actually enough is a separate discussion worth having. There is good evidence supporting the idea that with more free time employees could get done in 30 hours a week what they are currently doing in 40. But he's been demonstrated to be absolutely right with regards to where the spoils of increased productivity go. It rarely if ever materializes as less work or better pay for the masses and always seem to be funneled to the moneyed class instead. I hardly think it's privileged to believe that the progress and advancements made in a society should benefit everyone instead of a handful of already extremely wealthy people.
https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/teams-become-more-productive-...
Re: The Right to Be Lazy (1883)
#9Some additional info. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Right_to_Be_Lazy Definitely an interesting way to look at the world.
What an ironically privileged position, considering how much he calls out the bourgeoisie.
It is consistent with the meaning of bourgeoisie then, which transposed to modern systems means more like "the owner class" than the contemporary social connotation of well-compensated professionals. Owners benefit from more/harder work, both their own and that of others, and so it (reasonably) becomes a class value for them.
A non-owner worker doesn't benefit in the same way, but many still value work in the same way the bourgeoisie do. Workers don't benefit like owners do and so they shouldn't want to work like owners do. That's the point being made.
Re: The Right to Be Lazy (1883)
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
> According to Lafargue, wage labour is tantamount to slavery It does seem to be quite useless way to look at the world. It seems that they are unaware of what slavery actually means or deliberately mislead. Or Wikipedia is inaccurate.
It's meant in the sense of "coerced into working." Eg if you don't have a viable alternative to working, did you choose work freely? Everyone using this comparison from that time period knows it's an extreme metaphor and is using it at least partially for the shock value of the comparison, to jar people into seeing the everyday pressures in a different way. They aren't comparing the conditions of slavery to the condi…
I suspect calling it slavery is more shocking today than it would have been at the time when slavery was still an acceptable practice in major countries. Certainly people have a more visceral reaction to the term in general today than at that time.