Philosophy
David Brooks was rooting FOR Duke in the NCAA men's basketball championship. By itself, that is sufficient for condemnation on character grounds, but then he spelled out his reason -- the Duke players are "paragons of privilege" and in line with the central conservative myth, "rich people work longer hours than middle class or poor people." The wealthy are wealthy because they work harder and therefore deserve more.
Matt Taibbi in a take-down well worth the read, accuses Brooks of equivocating on "time spent on the job" and "time spent working," arguing that not all jobs are work.
So, today's question is what is the difference between work, job, and labor?
- Wealth, Hard Work, And Virtue
Listening to Mitt Romney's speech from last night, a constant strain in conservative rhetoric really stood out, the conflation of wealth, success, and virtue. The idea is that if you have a lot of money, it means that you worked harder than those...
- Feast Of Saint Foster
My Comedist Brethren, This week brings us the feast of Saint Foster. This would be Foster Brooks' 99th birthday. Beginning work as an announcer and news reporter, he began doing stand-up. Steve Allen and Perry Como launched his career, but it was...
- The Feast Of Saint Carl
My Fellow Comedists, This week saw the feast day of Saint Carl. Carl Reiner turned 89 this week. Reiner was a member of that legendary group of writers for Sid Caeser including Neil Simon, Woody Allen, Larry Gelbart, and, of course, Mel Brooks, who was...
- Is Being Really Good At Math A Power Or A Skill?
There's a scene in the film "Stranger Than Fiction" in which the main character is having dinner with a friend and asks what the friend would do if he he knew he would die soon. In negotiating the terms of this hypothetical, the friend asks if he...
- Economic Justice And Caging
Our friend Oxymoronic Philosopher has a very nice meditation on an editorial by Beth Shulman -- well worth the read. It was in thinking about a point made in Shulman's wonderful book, The Betrayal of Work, that I first realized the rhetorical trick...
Philosophy
What's the Difference: Work, Job, and Labor
David Brooks was rooting FOR Duke in the NCAA men's basketball championship. By itself, that is sufficient for condemnation on character grounds, but then he spelled out his reason -- the Duke players are "paragons of privilege" and in line with the central conservative myth, "rich people work longer hours than middle class or poor people." The wealthy are wealthy because they work harder and therefore deserve more.
Matt Taibbi in a take-down well worth the read, accuses Brooks of equivocating on "time spent on the job" and "time spent working," arguing that not all jobs are work.
I would give just about anything to sit David Brooks down in front of some single mother somewhere who?s pulling two shitty minimum-wage jobs just to be able to afford a pair of $19 Mossimo sneakers at Target for her kid, and have him tell her, with a straight face, that her main problem is that she doesn?t work as hard as Jamie Dimon.It seems to me that there is implicit in this discussion a notion of labor which is not being set out.
Only a person who has never actually held a real job could say something like this. There is, of course, a huge difference between working 80 hours a week in a profession that you love and which promises you vast financial rewards, and working 80 hours a week digging ditches for a septic-tank company, or listening to impatient assholes scream at you at some airport ticket counter all day long, or even teaching disinterested, uncontrollable kids in some crappy school district with metal detectors on every door.
So, today's question is what is the difference between work, job, and labor?
- Wealth, Hard Work, And Virtue
Listening to Mitt Romney's speech from last night, a constant strain in conservative rhetoric really stood out, the conflation of wealth, success, and virtue. The idea is that if you have a lot of money, it means that you worked harder than those...
- Feast Of Saint Foster
My Comedist Brethren, This week brings us the feast of Saint Foster. This would be Foster Brooks' 99th birthday. Beginning work as an announcer and news reporter, he began doing stand-up. Steve Allen and Perry Como launched his career, but it was...
- The Feast Of Saint Carl
My Fellow Comedists, This week saw the feast day of Saint Carl. Carl Reiner turned 89 this week. Reiner was a member of that legendary group of writers for Sid Caeser including Neil Simon, Woody Allen, Larry Gelbart, and, of course, Mel Brooks, who was...
- Is Being Really Good At Math A Power Or A Skill?
There's a scene in the film "Stranger Than Fiction" in which the main character is having dinner with a friend and asks what the friend would do if he he knew he would die soon. In negotiating the terms of this hypothetical, the friend asks if he...
- Economic Justice And Caging
Our friend Oxymoronic Philosopher has a very nice meditation on an editorial by Beth Shulman -- well worth the read. It was in thinking about a point made in Shulman's wonderful book, The Betrayal of Work, that I first realized the rhetorical trick...