A-Infos (en) Russia, Avtonom: Capitalism vs. Free Time (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

We are publishing the text of the "Black Speaker" project. ---- We live 
in a world where work is the primary occupation of most people. In the 
context of social status, work equals social inclusion and recognition. 
But should it be so? ---- Theorists' ideas over 100 years ago about the 
automation of most jobs and the value of free time gave false hope of 
reducing the number of working hours per week. But capitalism has played 
a cruel joke on us. As Buckminster Fuller noted, we continue to invent 
new jobs because of the false idea that everyone must engage in some 
kind of drudgery because they must prove their right to exist.

Thus, the 20th and 21st centuries have proven to be a time of 
flourishing unnecessary tasks, overproduction, and overconsumption, 
fueled by advertising. As a result of this game, the arsenal of current 
job openings, designed to support the "ideology of work," is filled with 
a vast number of "bullshit jobs." In his book "Bullshit Jobs," David 
Graeber cites the results of a UK survey that found that 37% of 
respondents consider their jobs bullshit. These are jobs that produce 
nothing and contribute nothing to the world-and yet we still work an 
average of 40 hours a week!

Meanwhile, even in developed countries, unemployment of various kinds 
remains high. While not working is certainly a good thing in itself, in 
a modern economy, it almost always means a lack of sufficient means to 
live. In the European Union, for example, official unemployment is 
around 6%, but the share of full-time employment is only around 62%. 
This means that, in addition to the officially unemployed, approximately 
30% of the working population works part-time, occasionally, or does not 
work at all and is not looking for work. Of course, this group includes, 
for example, students and people with disabilities, but overall, the 
proportion of those without a full income remains very high.

It would seem that if there isn't enough work for everyone, we could 
simply work three days a week. And if we exclude bullshit jobs, then two 
days. But then everyone would have to be paid a full wage for those two 
workdays, and neither capitalists nor governments are interested in that.

Capitalism creates a necessity that forces us to devote our lives to 
work, which we engage in emotionally and physically. And the idea that 
the more we engage and immerse ourselves in work, the more it will pay 
off, doesn't justify itself. But we will defend work because it not only 
brings us at least some income to cover our basic needs, but also 
because otherwise we would be excluded from the cultural life of modern 
society. Moreover, a significant portion of work under capitalism is 
aimed at producing goods and services that we don't actually need.

Can we expect to liberate time? Under capitalism, there can be no room 
for time that doesn't produce and consume goods. Time free from work 
does not become a space of freedom. In his book "Free Time," Adorno 
argues that the "compensatory activities" that occupy our time after 
work are an expression of our superficial freedom, albeit enjoyable. In 
today's reality, non-working time is a preparation for the return to 
work. "Free time is not free, but a mere extension of profit-oriented 
forms of social life." In the context of the development of modern 
technology, working time is likely not limited to the end of the working 
day at all.

Are we doomed to live in this capitalist cycle with no escape? David 
Frayn points to circumstances that could change the situation and offers 
an alternative: "When we recognize that the need to work is the result 
of society's political, economic, and moral choices, we as a society 
become free to make new choices. We remain open to the exciting prospect 
that there may be other ways to satisfy needs that are typically 
satisfied (or left unsatisfied, as the case may be) by paid work."

The need to work 40 hours a week isn't objective-it's created by 
capitalism. First, we should acknowledge this and not blame ourselves or 
others for their reluctance to work, but rather support it. The fight 
against capitalism may be even more difficult than the fight against the 
state, but that doesn't mean it should be secondary. After all, it's 
capitalism that prevents us from devoting all our time and energy to 
building a better world.

https://avtonom.org/news/kapitalizm-protiv-svobodnogo-vremeni
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