Part 9: Will we work in the future?

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This is a big question. It is clear that now we still have to work because we do not have such developed machines which would be able to do everything for us. It is also true that most of us can change their jobs and that people who really want to do their dream job which they consider as their purpose probably mostly can. And it is also true that we can do some systematic improvements to make the lives of average workers or entrepreneurs better.

However, I would like to believe that one day all people will be able to live their real free lives as Lukas from the third story could. That we will be very developed society where most individuals will want to live like real aristocracy and they will want to devote their time to some voluntary work which would still be improving the lives of all people. And that they will still have a lot of free time to do what they really want to. I suppose that also our relationships and our laws would be better if people have more time for them and for politics.

So let's create the robots which will be able to do the necessary and unpopular work for us. Let's educate all people in the way of better humanity and let's develop the necessary habits to be able to live truly free lives. Let's teach our machines how to work, how to do business, how to invest money. Let's become a society of rich capitalists who will be able to live their dream lives not from the real added values and from surplus created by other people, but from them, created by machines and robots. And keep in mind that if we want it, we cannot give them human rights.

...

This essay was originally written with a title "The ideology in sci-fi genre and the future of work, freedom and inequality" and it was done for a course lead by Aleš Debeljak at the University of Ljubljana during my Erasmus exchange programme. I give thanks to him for the possibility to creatively write what I wanted and also to my high school English teacher Lucie Adamusová for her useful grammar tips. 

Part 1: Intro

Part 2: Is our generation richer even than the kings of the past were?

Part 3: The beginning of the 21st century and the choice to conform to the system

Part 4: The beginning of the 22nd century and drowning in consumerism

Part 5: The beginning of the 22nd century and the aristocratic life for all

Part 6: The beginning of the 21st century and the freedom of enterprise

Part 7: But, aren't we only lazy and weak individuals with bad habits?

Part 8: What does it mean to be really rich?

Part 9: Will we work in the future?

What does it mean to be really rich?

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It brings us to this important question. Someone answers that having a lot of money. Someone else would say to be happy with what you have no matter how much it is. I don't believe it. I think that being really rich means that you can spend your time in the way you really love, on a place which you really choose, and only with those kinds of people you really like, and still be able to feed yourself and to have your needs sufficiently fulfilled at the same time. Not doing a job which you hate just to have more money for some free time to enjoy. Not doing a job which you love but making a huge compromise with your desired lifestyle. Of course, the second would still be better but we have to find better ways.

I really find it problematic that many people today do not do what they love, they have to spend a lot of hours in their jobs, sometimes even overtime, sometimes they have to take their work home, or have to have more jobs, or cannot have enough time for lunch, or cannot choose the place of their work and so on. They also do not have enough sleep, are much stressed, use synthetic stimulation to be awake and focused, and that all just to be able to feed themselves and their families. I doubt it that they could feel as really free people.

However, they are still much freer than in other political or economic systems. They do not have to be members of the "right" party to keep their jobs or to stay alive. They do not have to do the jobs which government forces them to do. It is only nature, their willpower and their habits which decide. Almost everyone was born with some potential, with some abilities and in our societies we also have an opportunity to develop our skills or knowledge through mostly free education and if not, then on the internet.

Liberal capitalism is individualistic in the way that it can make us free from the government or from other individuals and it can let us live our free lives with the money which we are able to get from our work, our enterprise, our investments or from any other form, and to choose to fulfill the variety of our needs. On the other hand, liberal capitalism is still very collectivistic because it forces us to cooperate and compete with other people, to use our skills, knowledge, time, work and effort to do the activities which fulfill the needs of our whole society.

Part 1: Intro

Part 2: Is our generation richer even than the kings of the past were?

Part 3: The beginning of the 21st century and the choice to conform to the system

Part 4: The beginning of the 22nd century and drowning in consumerism

Part 5: The beginning of the 22nd century and the aristocratic life for all

Part 6: The beginning of the 21st century and the freedom of enterprise

Part 7: But, aren't we only lazy and weak individuals with bad habits?

Part 8: What does it mean to be really rich?

Part 9: Will we work in the future?

But, aren't we only lazy and weak individuals with bad habits?

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It would be great to live our dream lives. However it must bring us to a question if we are not only too lazy. It is possible that people who really want to live their ideal life or to do their dream job really can do so already in our time. There are examples of many people who didn't give up and they instead worked hard to achieve what they wanted. But most people just give in and make up with the false external circumstances and do not live their real life.

Nevertheless, it is still not so easy. Even if I worked hard, surpassed myself, built useful companies so that I could live my life independently on money or time, I would still be unhappy because most people could not do this. The technologies would still not be so developed so that everyone could be financially independent of their work and their time. And of course we would still have a lot to do to improve the lives of those people who still must do the work which they would not do if they were rich, and which I believe one day robots will do.

Part 1: Intro

Part 2: Is our generation richer even than the kings of the past were?

Part 3: The beginning of the 21st century and the choice to conform to the system

Part 4: The beginning of the 22nd century and drowning in consumerism

Part 5: The beginning of the 22nd century and the aristocratic life for all

Part 6: The beginning of the 21st century and the freedom of enterprise

Part 7: But, aren't we only lazy and weak individuals with bad habits?

Part 8: What does it mean to be really rich?

Part 9: Will we work in the future?