Opinion polls are now beginning to show that,
whoever is to blame and whatever happens from now on, high unemployment is
probably here to stay. This means we shall have to find ways of sharing the
available employment more widely. But we need to go further. We
must ask some fundamental questions about the future work. Should we continue to
treat employment as the norm Should we not rather encourage many ways for
self-respecting people to work Should we not create conditions in which many of
us can work for ourselves, rather than for an employer Should we not aim to
revive the household and the neighborhood, as well as the factory and the
office, as centers of production and work The industrial age
has been the only period of human history in which most people’s work has taken
the form of jobs. The industrial age may now be coming to an end, and some of
the changes in work patterns which it brought may have to be reversed. This
seems a daunting thought. But, in fact, it could offer the prospect of a better
future for work. Universal employment, as its history shows, has not meant
economic freedom. Employment became widespread when the
enclosures of the 17th and 18th centuries made many people dependent on paid
work by depriving them of the use of the land, and thus of the means to provide
a living for themselves. Then the factory system destroyed the cottage
industries and removed work from people’s homes. Later, as transport improved
first by rail and then by road, people commuted longer distances to their places
of employment until, eventually, many people’s work lost all connection with
their home lives and the places in which they live. Meanwhile,
employment put women at a disadvantage. In preindustrial times, men and women
had shared the productive work of the household and village community. Now it
became customary for the husband to go out to paid employment, leaving the
unpaid work of the home and families to his wife. Tax and benefit regulations
still assume this norm today, and restrict more flexible sharing of work roles
between the sexes. It was not only women whose work status
suffered. As employment became the dominant form of work, young people and old
people were excluded—a problem now, as more teenagers become frustrated at
school and more retired people want to live active lives. All
this may now have to change. The time has certainly come to
switch some effort and resources away from the idealist goal creating jobs for
all, to the urgent practical task of helping many people to manage without
full-time jobs. Which of the following is NOT suggested as a possible means to cope
with the current situation
A. Create situations in which people work for themselves.
B. Treat employment as the norm.
C. Endeavor to revive the household and the neighborhood as centers of
production.
D. Encourage people to work in circumstances other than normal working
conditions.