At 12:50 PM 28/06/00 -0500, Bonnie wrote:
>Can we all agree, though, that in general, people are willing to work harder
>if their material rewards are directly proportional to the work done?
You couldn't prove it by me. I could multiply my material rewards manyfold
by writing franchise or sharecrop fiction, or better yet by churning out
slick mega-bestsellers called QUANTUM ASTROLOGY. Would take less work and
earn more money.
Watched a TV program the other night on the efforts by cleaning and other
maintenance staff in Silicon Valley to earn enough to cope with the
explosion in rents and other prices in the area. The poor buggers seemed to
be working as hard as humanly possible, two jobs cleaning, mother and kids
sleeping in the one shockingly expensive room... I guess if you paid them
more they'd work *really* hard.
My hope is that, as we approach the Spike, most of those odious jobs will
disappear, and new ways will be found to assure the people displaced from
work of a decent basic subsistence. That, luckily, is alleged to be one of
the benefits of drextech assemblers - if they arrive on schedule.
>So what IS it like in Australia, Damien?
Not that different from how it is in the States, actually, Bonnie. :)
Less chance of getting shot to death. The two or three percent of
aboriginal people have a worse time than American Indians, I'd guess, due
to massive culture shock that's still after 200 years making it difficult
for the two cultures to co-exist (and this is not just attributable to
racism or mean-spirited or insanely ethnospecific govt and charity policies
etc, although those have played their part). Many fewer people
proportionately who suffer from lack of medical treatment. Far less
gradient between the rich and poor, although of course that differential is
increasing and introducing a marked change in the previous sense of
egalitarian fairness (`mateship', `a fair go'). But how do I know how this
compares? I've lived here all my life... (and spent a bit of it watching
and reading US media).
Damien
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