"what if jobs are not the solution but the problem?"

[anarch]

3. eventually, this pretty much has to be the answer

Well in my opinion anyway. Then again I'm pretty much for universal healthcare and free education too, with the likely trade-off of not spending so much on "defense" as we do now. Socialism, pretty much. A pipe dream? I think only as long as these ideas are anathema to the majority of the American people.

If people really feel like they need to have a "job" for reasons of self-esteem, I'm sure there would still be plenty of work that people could do to help rebuild and/or maintain our infrastructure or help administer and/or deliver all these expanded social services--in that case, the government actually could create jobs directly, unlike in the current, unplanned economy.

I feel like this all only seems unthinkable because of our conditioning. That and the fact that this scheme sort of assumes a post-scarcity economy is within our grasp...if technology continues to advance at a rapid pace, I actually think we could get there within the next couple of centuries...if we collectively wanted to, and if we don't destroy ourselves first.