"Employment Rate Hits All-Time Low"It would likely be safe to venture that such a headline brings to mind images of hardship; images of families standing in bread lines, of multitudes seeking after work which cannot be found, riots and looting as people look to satisfy their needs by any means available, loss of homes and property, and a bleak and dismal culture of scarcity. Despite living at the height of human productive potential, lack of employment for a mere tenth of the population begins to bring on the effects listed above, and threatens to drag us toward systemic failure. Why, when we live in a world where we can extract nearly one man-year of work from a barrel of oil (roughly 2,000 hours) -- approximately 19,000,000 man-years worth of work equivalence per day expended in the United States alone -- is the requirement for human labor so great? It is not, as can easily be seen, because the benefit of human labor is so great in comparison to our other developed methods of labor. It is, rather, because the penalty imposed for not being given to labor is so extreme. To put it bluntly, we live in a forced labor society.
"I'm not forced into labor," one might say.
"No one holds a gun to my head and forces me to labor."
Of course not. That would be barbaric, and would all-too-quickly reveal the nature of the system in which we all operate. Such a revelation would be catastrophic, as the illusion of freedom is necessary to perpetuate the system. Cast a sidelong glance toward your temple, and in place of a gun, one will find other things held to their head with the demand of labor attached -- lest the "trigger" be pulled and the worker be so deprived -- food; shelter; clothing; medicine; education; even water, one of life's most essential requirements, can be found as hostages. The metaphorical hammer is ever drawn back, and there is no safety -- you do not own, with requisite security, that which is required to survive. Despite living in a world capable of abundance, you are forced to subsist on only that which labor provides you. Sadly, even labor is no guarantee against the imposed harshness of the system. Abundance benefits the few at the expense of the many. The chief factor which contributes to our slavery is our complicity with it. Beware those who say that they will fight to ensure you always have a job. These are the enemy, for their goal is your continued servitude.
There are alternatives, which may liberate us, and give to each their equitable share of abundance, and to do so without punishment for any labor which is lacking. Alternatives which seek to harness our progress and productive power to free as many as possible from bondage, suffering, and debt. It is possible to forge for ourselves a system where we will greet with gladness the hallmark of progress:
"Employment Rate Hits All-Time Low"
