Here is an article discussing the need to rethink the meaning of work. The article was originally written in Dutch by Rutger Bregman and the translated English version is on the World Economic Forum webpage. The article may be read as a promotion for Bregman's book - Utopia for realist: How we can build the ideal world.
The paragraph on 'what is work' is worth looking through. In short, many highly paid and usually sought after jobs do not stack up as being fulfilling, interesting of worthwhile!! In large surveys carried out recently, over 70% of the respondents - who are consultants, bankers, managers etc. do no like their jobs and / or think their jobs are useless. All in, a really worrying statistic.
Then, only work which pay money are deemed to be count towards GDP. This is not a new concept. In the 1980s, my emergent interest in finding more about the world found me reading the book - Counting for Nothing - by Marilyn Waring - now a Professor at Auckland Institute of Technology. This book set me on the path I now walk - one in which it is important to question expectations and look beyond the norm. The book also influenced by nascent inquiries into feminism, sustainability and the need for individuals to take responsibility and to play a role - no matter how small - in trying to ensure we leave the world a better place for others who will follow us.
The article then sets up an argument for a universal basic income - UBI - similar in slant to the investigations taken up by the NZ Labour party and summarised in recent blog. The byline at the end of the article is apt - jobs for robots and life is for people.
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