Page 33 - HQ May June July 2020

production and workers the remaining 6%. (Animals basic needs is already accomplished by fewer wor-
were finally liberated!) kers than ever before, then the economy will have no
There is more to come thanks to the digital re- choice but to create useless new jobs, and cultivate
volution. Computers perform more than one million pseudo needs, so that people will have jobs to pur-
operations per second. How many workers have chase unnecessary products. This is today’s ‘consu-
been replaced in various manufacturing sectors be- mer society’.
cause of computers? Additionally, goods will be made to function for
Such factories exist. The Nissan Zama plant in a short time only. This is so that more goods will
Japan produces 1,300 cars each day with only 67 be manufactured and sold and more money made.
workers — that is more than 13 cars each day per Such planned obsolescence leads to a waste of natu-
worker. Some factories are entirely automated such ral resources, and a degradation of the environment.
as the Fiat motor plant in Italy which is operated by Workers are performing repetitive tasks that ma-
20 robots that do all the car assembly work. chines can perform. In such monotonous work, crea-
tive potential is stifled and personal development
crushed. Work which offers no creative side, and
which can be completed by machines, is dehuma-
nizing and a sad prerequisite for acquiring money,
which is truly the ‘permit to live’.
Freely Chosen Activities

Men, unlike animals, have spiritual and cultural
needs in addition to material needs. In the Gospel,
Jesus said: “Not on bread alone does man live, but
in every word that proceeds from the mouth of God”
(Matthew 4:4). Expecting men and women to dedi-
cate most of their time providing for their material
needs is rooted in materialism. It denies the spiritual
dimension of the human person.
If we are not kept busy with paid work what will
Social Chaos in Automation was a report signed we do with our free time? We can spend our time
by 32 experts in 1962, including Swedish born eco- on activities that are freely chosen that develop our
nomist Gunnar Myrdal and Nobel Prize winner, Linus God-given interests and creative talents.
Pauling. The report was presented to President J. F. Moreover, it is during leisure that men and wo-
Kennedy. It predicted a “revolution which promised men can attend to their religious, social, and family
unlimited output… by systems of machines which duties, such as raising children, practising their faith
will require little cooperation from human beings. and helping their neighbour. Raising children is
Consequently, action must be taken to ensure inco- surely the most important job in the world yet the
mes for all men, whether or not they engage in what mother who stays at home raising children receives
is commonly reckoned as work”. no salary and is viewed in society as unemployed
In The End of Work (1995), U.S. author Jeremy and idle.
Rifkin quoted a Swiss study which said that “in thirty With leisure, individuals will be able to participate
years from now, less than 2% of the present work- in activities that appeal to them. Under a Social Cre-
force will be enough to produce the totality of the dit system there would be an explosion of creative
goods that people need.” It is predicted that 3 out of activity, we imagine. Indeed, the greatest inventions
4 jobs — from retail clerks to surgeons — will even- and works of art have been created during times of
tually be replaced by computer-guided technology. leisure. Douglas remarked:
If the rule that restricts the distribution of mo- “Most people prefer to be employed, but on
ney to those who are employed persists, society is things they like rather than on the things they don’t
headed for chaos. It will be ludicrous to tax 2% of like to be employed upon. The proposals of Social
workers to support the remaining 98%. We need a Credit are in no sense intended to produce a nation
source of income that is not tied to employment. The of idlers... Social Credit would allow people to al-
case is clearly made for a Social Dividend. locate themselves to those jobs to which they are
Environmental Implications suited. A job you do well is a job you like, and a job
you like is a job you do well.” v
If we want to persist in keeping every adult em-
ployed in production, even if production to meet Alain Pilote

www.michaeljournal.org MICHAEL May/June/July 2020 33