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i think it is a comparison to the fact that in times past.. you could manage to live without working. if you could claim a piece of land as small as a half acre.. you could grow your own food, scavenge building materials, kill small game for meat and fish. and never have to work for the system. but this system.. even if you had all that.. you still have to work to pay taxes, fees, no matter what else you do. thats what they meant.

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[-] 3 points by MaryS (529) 14 years ago

Thank you! That makes sense. Surviving in that way is still incredible work but far more rewarding I think. Certainly more fair. I'm not sure I like the poster but I like what you're saying.

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[-] 3 points by JadedGem (895) 14 years ago

I support OWS. My ex-husband is a partner in a small business. I am raising a disables child as well as a gifted one and he helps me do be able do this. That's why I am lucky enough to have time to come the boards. I helped him threw college and he's helping me now even though we are divorced. I'd love to be able to work and I am hoping I will be able to go out and do that again. I am more disturbed by every aspect of my survival generating profits for mega wealthy stockholders in corporations that control resources and goods and services we need. I think for profit hospitals cost way more than when the county ran it. I started a garden for the first time this year. I try to buy second-hand, used, recycled, and not just because I'm poor but because it is good for the planet. I don't think the poor are all trying to cheat the system or want something for nothing. There are bad people and good people in all income brackets. I'm a Christian and its not how I was raised to kick people when they are down. We live in a world people's value as a human being is determined by how much they can afford to consume and this is wrong and it needs to change. Just look at the tactic of acting like all poor people are poor because they don't want to work! I'd almost think people were jealous of the unemployed because they are so miserable doing their own jobs. I grew up in the south and my grandpa told me after slavery ended, land owners would hire blacks and not pay them enough to see them threw the winter so then they would have to borrow money in the winter to feed their kids. Then next year, they had to try and work off their debt which they never could. They were made slaves to their debts. This is being done to everyone for a home, for an education. We are not free. We are slaves to our debts and consumers of things that are suppose the replace the joy that is stolen in the workplaces. We slave and go to the movies, buy drugs, watch cable and try to escape our lives. That's not real freedom, and we are not living joyful lives, and the pursuit of things just leaves working people jealous of anyone who doesn't have to. We are broken and we are selling ourselves into slavery hour by hour for mere trinkets. That isn't right. Our values need to change and we need to change our lives as much as we can.

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[-] 2 points by MaryS (529) 14 years ago

Yes, I have lived the kind of simple lifestyle that you and anarkette speak of and that is the kind of work that doesn't kill your spirit. I grow some veggies on my back porch and don't watch TV. Continually find joy in being frugal. I must admit I'm a bit attached to my computer tho.. Thank you for your thoughtful answers

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[-] 2 points by elf3 (4203) 14 years ago

There is no choice because there are no jobs - and we're competing against slave labor to keep what we have. When there is no other option - the employers know this (what you think businessmen aren't wise to these economic conditions?) I heard a story on the news that employers love that employees are desperate and have no choices - they can pay them less, work them harder. It's a fear based system. If it were just yourself it would be a different story but people will sacrifice a lot more and put up with a lot more in the name of their loved ones who are relying on them. They can't leave a bad job - and if they do they will just find themselves in another bad job. Jobs are also different than careers. A career can give purpose and satisfaction it's something you worked towards and built and are now putting skills to use. A job feeds you not your soul - it pays the bills. But companies want all of you now - your personal time, your undying commitment, your excitement, to revel in their grandeur even as they pay you enough so you can just squeak by and they're working you above and beyond the pay. You can have my 8 hours, you can have my hard work, but you can't threaten me daily, cause me undue stress, leach of my soul and the things I believe in - those things belong to me. The workplace is not a democracy - but that ends at the door - at home I am free and I am not being paid to plan, or check emails, or worry about tomorrow. We need balance - this way of life is abusive and wearing people out. Tired people are less productive, they get angry, they rebel.

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[-] 1 points by DemandTheGoodLifeDotCom (3360) from New York, NY 14 years ago

Work is not a choice in our system. So you are not free. Most are forced to work whether you want to or not.

I am not familiar with the post you are referring to, but they made a statement of fact.

If you are independently wealthy, then work is an option. You can choose not to work and live off of your passive income. So your freedom depends on your income. The independently wealthy are free; the rest of society are not.

We should strive to build a free society where work is no longer coerced, where it is an option. People should have the freedom to spend their time any way they want. Most jobs suck. It is a complete waste of human time.

If we had a more rational economic system, like the one here that I write about, we would make freedom a priority. We would immediately eliminate half the jobs we do by automating them and reduce the work week to 20 hours.

You should have the freedom to spend your time doing what you enjoy, not wasting the vast majority of your life doing a job that you hate that a machine should be doing.

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[-] 1 points by anarkette (24) from Boston, MA 14 years ago

I don't work. I have land in the middle of the forest. I wake up at 5am, and go out to gather berries and honeycombs, then I milk my cow. I eat breakfast, a big one, then I go and cut wood. I burn wood to work my steam engine which I use for all kinds of stuff like crushing nuts. I have a son who works for the system. He buys me stuff once in awhile, like this MacBook Air which I am using to send this message.

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[-] -1 points by Calsium (6) 14 years ago

Was the person wearing a troll suit or was he dressed up as a banker?

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[-] 3 points by MaryS (529) 14 years ago

He was incognito so I guess he could have been either

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[+] -4 points by occuman (-21) 14 years ago

so what if no-one worked? how would you live? you would have no one to sponge off. where do you think the govt gets the money to dole out to you freeloading drones who want free stuff in exchange for your vote?

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