Unemployment

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

What this country needs is some Kurazarbeit:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurzarbeit

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

Of course in a rational society when millions are out of work, while other millions suffer from burnout, backache or sleep-shortage due to overlong working time, we would redistribute work in a way that allows us to produce the same amount of goods and services with a 20hour-week for everyone.

But since the capitalist economy's goal is not the satisfaction of needs, but the production of abstract wealth, this is impossible.

I'm afraid that's just laughably wrong. You can't redistribute work like that.

Also, talking about the capitalist economy's goal makes no sense. What happens in a free market is the result of agents in that market trying to satisfy their preferences. Apparently, peoples' preferences seem to be for a 40-hour work week, given the various constraints that exist.

The capitalist economy that you so despise has led to people being more satisfied now than they have ever been anywhere in human history.

PS: I'd also like to note for the record that I think Opebo overdid it this time. No one can be so stupid as to believe what he posted...

Time to go off topic:
I'd say that the existence of humanity in prehistoric times led to more contentment among the average person than this post-industrial lifestyle. The average prehistoric man actually ate a very healthy and balanced diet, was very tall, had many more hours of leisure time (obviously these were spent differently) and most important he/she had a major purpose. This primordial existence is ideal for humanity and is how it spent the majority of its time on Earth.

Not that I'd want to go back to that personally. Also the idea that our economy should be modeled after what makes us happiest is ridiculous, I'd like to think that we shouldn't determine the structure of society based off of a hedonic calculus.

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

Time to go off topic:I'd say that the existence of humanity in prehistoric times led to more contentment among the average person than this post-industrial lifestyle. The average prehistoric man actually ate a very healthy and balanced diet, was very tall, had many more hours of leisure time (obviously these were spent differently) and most important he/she had a major purpose. This primordial existence is ideal for humanity and is how it spent the majority of its time on Earth.

Please tell me that this post isn't entirely serious.

No, that was mostly a random tangent fueled by something I read in a book/lack of sleep and the fact that I grow tired of arguments claiming that free market liberal democracies must be the peak of society.

I don't buy into primitivism. I do think that the equilibrium of existence in prehistoric times produced far less nasty, brutish and short lifestyles than the life of a farmer in Sumeria though  

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

Also the idea that our economy should be modeled after what makes us happiest is ridiculous

Interesting statement.

What do you think should it be modeled after instead?

It should be modeled after what makes us progress as a society. Defining that is incredibly difficult but I'm sure you know what I'm getting at.

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

Okay, obviously the happiness part of my argument was a bit of a leap as quantifying happiness is only a recent developed obtained through psychological data. I'd still contend that if early farmers had shorter lifespans due to poor nutrition and a quicker spread of disease and also worked longer hours to grow these meager crops in the first place, it makes some sense to make the leap towards saying that they were less happy. There was also less independence for the average farmer compared to the average hunter-gatherer as early farming communities became stratified.

Like I said, that first post of mine is a really warped argument that I mostly posted for fun (it succeeded in starting an interesting discussion so the post worked!). Do you really think that I'd honestly believe that hunter-gatherers lived more fufilling and happier lives than the modern day person?