Alternatives To Work

Are there any alternatives to work? Even if there are, people are so busy working that they may never have the time to find them.

Most of us are so immersed in work that we can not imagine a world outside of the current model. As conventional thinking goes, there are no alternatives to work as we know it. "Get a hair cut, and get a job" is understood as not only the right thing to do, but the only thing to do.

Only by rationally questioning our social assumptions and priorities surrounding the concept of work, and by actually facing the resultant problems, can we then begin to shift toward healthier ways of living.

Is full employment desirable? Who benefits from our working longer hours for less pay? Is work 'liberating'? 'Good for us'? Are people who don't have a job lazy, unproductive losers?

These are the types of questions that we need to discuss before we can get an objective, scientific view of what we are doing from 9 to 5, fifty weeks out of the year. More and more people are asking these questions.

People are getting wise to the scam of wage slavery and they are doing something about it.

A growing number of freedom-loving people are finding alternatives to conventional notions of work. 28 % of US citizens are 'down-shifting' in order to realign their lives with their yearning for more freedom. They are 'tuning out' the dominant culture of work overload, and reject the costly consumer oriented value system.

Down-shifters, and other adherents of simple living, are choosing more free time and less work. Some are moving to quieter, less expensive, rural towns where life is slower and communities are still intact. People are seeking their own (not advertisers' or employers') definitions of quality-of-life, including how a job may or may not fit into their overall picture.

We are brainwashed to believe that if we are not 'doing something' every minute of every day then we are wasting our lives. Quite the opposite is in fact true, chasing 'things', 'thoughts' and 'sensations' simply allows our lives to pass by unnoticed.

More people are opting out of mainstream notions of 'work' and 'success', and are exploring simple living alternatives that allow the freedom to pursue priorities other than the purely economic.

Priorities encompassing all of life such as love, cooperation, creativity, mutual support, play, curiosity, compassion, and truth. How could working a regular monotonous job just for money even compare?

Like Peter Gibbons said in the movie Office Space, "We don't have a lot of time on this earth! We weren't meant to spend it this way. Human beings were not meant to sit in little cubicles staring at computer screens all day, filling out useless forms and listening to eight different bosses drone on about about mission statements."

Today, many millennials are not buying into the system in the first place. They are not buying many of the traditional big ticket items such as houses and new cars. Such things can be as much of a burden as a blessing.

The sharing economy allows people to free themselves from having to personally own everything they use. Whereas previous consumer generations took pride in owning as much as possible, millennials don't see this as some sort of badge of honour. I agree with them.

If you enjoy the work world, and are lucky enough to have a job in which you don't feel exploited, abused, demeaned, or otherwise maligned, more power to you. However, if you are one of a legion of workers that is under stress on the job and would like to get free, there are alternatives.

Note that none of them are likely to be easy. But then, neither is dragging yourself out of bed day after day after day to go to a job you hate, only to get paid a wage under the poverty line.

Ultimately it would be good if everyone could do what makes them happy, and receive their fair share of the planet's resources for doing it. But until capitalism and greed crumble completely from their inherent non-sustainability, some transitional alternatives are possible.

Among those include things such as:

- downshifting, (spend less so you can work less)
- participating in your community to create local self-sufficiency and resiliency
- gardening
- squatting
- dumpster diving
- traditional hunting/gathering
- joining, or starting, a cooperative
- creating a strong support network in your neighbourhood
- living in a van or RV
- being your own boss doing something you love
- developing strong ties with family and friends
- use barter networks, tool sharing, and 'free' sections of websites like Craigslist

I don't know of any alternatives that don't require a sacrifice of energy, but most of the ones I listed will provide a certain amount of freedom from being preyed upon by the mandatory work system and those that benefit from it.