Photo by Dan Dumitriu on Unsplash
A real risk accompanying the transition to a Copiosis economy is the “Great Do Nothing”. The name is based on legitimate fears of those advocating for continued use of wage slave labor capitalism creates.
The fear goes “If you give everybody necessities for free, people won’t do anything.” Presumably, people won’t work. They’ll sit around, collect their necessities and lift not a finger. Meanwhile a lot of fingers must lift to keep society going. As a result, these people claim, society would collapse.
It just might, if everyone does nothing.
But we can do several things to avert this catastrophe. Natural human dynamics which make humans so great will aid us. The Copiosis framework also will ensure such catastrophic outcomes are, at worst, minimized, and at best, avoided altogether.
A time to decompress
First, the transition while happening right now, isn’t going to be an overnight thing. And, since we at Copiosis understand the transition, we can plan in advance for this phenomena.
We know already, for example, that people will need decompression time. They will want to relax after thousands of years of people indoctrinating them into believing they must earn everything they get. Nearly everyone today works jobs they’d rather not. So of course if you free them from those jobs, or at least make them optional, they’ll opt not to go. We saw this during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Opting not to do something you don’t want to do is natural. It’s also exactly what must happen in the transitionary steps. We want people pursuing their passions, not doing things they MUST do to earn livings. Following their passions, they create optimal outcomes. Outcomes of high quality and which delight those who consume such outcomes.
People need time to discover what their passions are. They also need time to let go of resentment. Resentment they might feel about the past given the new freedom Copiosis offers. Rediscovering one’s self takes a while. So does letting go of past hurts and resentments. So we must expect a period where people take time to do this.
But we can plan for it in advance. Anticipating this period, we can set up processes and procedures that soothe the bumps stemming from people not wanting to work. And, in the meantime, human nature can help too.
Human nature will help
The fact is, we’re not all 100 percent the same. Yes, some will want to chill, decompress, whatever they want to call it. But others will continue working. I think many will. They’ll figure they don’t have anything else to do. Some will feel bored sitting at home. Or maybe they won’t want to be home, with their kids or their spouses, all damn day. Many folks actually do enjoy their work. Many find meaning in what they do. Others find value and a sense of self worth in contributing to something larger than themselves.
And even though the vast majority of folks work jobs they wouldn’t if given the chance, some find passion in their jobs. Some even find passion in work from which most humans would instantly walk away.
Other people likely will work because they know if they don’t, what they do won’t get done and people depend on what these people do. I’m talking about firefighters, certain government agency workers, doctors and other service professions. As we saw in some companies during the pandemic and its fallout, some employers might offer certain incentives to keep people working.
Some people might figure that they needn’t stop working entirely. Such people may cut down on the hours they work. Perhaps such choices could create work shares and other schemes where people work less, but the work still gets done because, on the net, the work that needs getting done didn’t require everyone who did that work in the first place.
In other words, a lot of people at work can do the work they do in fewer hours than employers think is needed.
Copiosis will help
We explained before how the Copiosis framework helps alleviate ills of a Great Do Nothing. Should people quit “essential” jobs, those who keep doing such jobs will get rich in Net Benefit Rewards (NBR). The way the algorithm works says that if fewer people do high Net Benefit Value (NBV) work, those still doing that work get more NBR. So a built-in wealth incentive will likely inspire some people who quit to come back. Especially if they see their former colleagues consuming luxuries once only dreamed about.
The NBV concept will help too. Suppose an employer recognizes his employees might leave. Anticipating this, he might change how the work gets done. Or he might change the environment in which the work happens, making the environment more enjoyable, less dangerous or less stressful. Such changes in themselves would merit an NBR increase for the employer. But such changes might also make his employees stick around when others leave.
Of course the employer needn’t think up this stuff on his own. If his employees make workplace improvements that inspire people doing essential work to continue doing that work, they will get nice NBR increases for their innovations too.
The “Great Do Nothing” Copiosis will likely create needn’t be the end of human civilization. It could instead be the respite humans need as they decompress from centuries of being forced to earn. It could also offer a gradual onramp to the new future Copiosis creates.
Whether it’s a good thing, or the nightmare some fear, literally depends on what we do to plan for it in advance. Thank goodness then that we are preparing.
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