I feel bad contemplating the idea of doing enjoyable work that does not contribute to the basic areas of American consumption: food, water, housing, energy, transportation, healthcare, household appliances, computers, cell phones, stereos, air conditioning, insurance, banking, public parks. Could I possibly work within these fields and be happy? It's nice to contribute to the improvement of products. It would be good to help design more energy efficient and lower-priced goods. But this task of improvement only makes up a small fraction of an enterprise. The bulk of the work is in producing and servicing the current products. But how exciting can it be to build and sell washing machines? Whose first choice would this be? This type of work is essentially a chore. Thus, it seems that all we can do is 1) minimize the amount of time we spend on chore work, and 2) create conditions of chore work that facilitate socialization with co-workers and (in some instances) customers.
If we all do our share of the chore work, that should leave plenty of creative work for us to do. Those with a talent for teaching can teach, engineers can engineer, designers can design, etc. Things aren't looking so bad anymore, right? It gets even better.
Lastly there's the artistic work. This is the type of work that a small percentage of especially talented individuals are able to earn a living on. Whereas the creative work is something almost all people can earn money from, artistic work is more limited. As is presently the case, only a small percentage will be able to earn money from this type of work. However, all will be able to do artistic work in their free time.
I imagine that in this improved society I'm describing, it would be acceptable for the artists (musicians, painters, athletes, etc) to be exempted from the regular shares of chore work and creative work. They would be totally excepted from the creative work and partially excepted from the chore work. Though they wouldn't do their fair share of chore work, they would spend about 10 percent of their work time on those tasks, which I believe is enough to establish solidarity with the rest of society. We all benefit from this organization because we benefit from excellent music, sports, visual art. A world of mediocre art world certainly be a world of a lower quality of life.
So this is the economic utopia I've come up with. I'd be happy to hear any alternatives or amendments.
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Christian,
ReplyDeleteGreat post! Sometimes I am astonished at how much I can enjoy work that others might view as a chore. It is a great reminder that each person has his/her own path that appeals to our individual likes and strengths.
But you are right, probably most people would not put their #1 choice as building and selling washing machines...maybe it would be one chapter of their life's path? And hopefully it would offer insight into what they DO want for themselves and their life's work. I guess my question is, Can chore work be creative work? Or are the two mutually exclusive?
I love that you recognize the importance of artists in your economic utopia. Your vision surely gets my wheels turning. :)
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ReplyDeleteAnnie,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment :) I think it's great that you can enjoy chore work so much. I wounder if you universally enjoy chore work or if you enjoy it only under certain circumstances, such as when you see your work as contributing to a good cause or as being appreciated by the recipients. Do you think you could hold that positive attitude while building washing machines for anonymous customers? If indeed your positive attitude is at least partly dependent on the conditions under which you're working, it would be important to design workplaces with these conditions.
As for your question of whether chore work can be creative, it depends on how you look at it. After all, a person working a hot dog stand--something we would usually consider chore work--can make a juggling show out of the production of your hot dog. But then the nature of this work is artistic and no longer a chore--although a show like that might eventually get repetitive and become a chore. Ultimately what I'm saying is that if you're experiencing any type of work as creative work, then it's creative work and not anything else. So, strictly speaking, the answer is no. But what you CAN do is produce goods and services usually produced through chore work through creative work.
You might specifically be thinking about integrating creative work into chore work. Here we are really talking about a conglomeration of different types of work. At the end of the day, spreading mayonnaise on a slice of bread for a sandwich is just that. There is nothing creative about it. There is no real thinking involved. If you're experimenting with new ingredients, ok, but if you're just making the same old sandwich, there's nothing creative about that.