That is another thing, which would be clearly seen, if we had a tool to calculate it.
But i realize now i do not even want such tool. It really is a bit of common sense to imagine that with my lifestyle , a lot of people are working for me.
This idea first came to my attention reading Helena Norberg's work, many years ago.
Now i see it this way; in a perfect society we all share the load, or rather we would all love what we do, and somehow everybody is taken care of. (a self sufficient community, I know they exist)) When we think of a simple society, someone would harvest, someone would cook, built, etc. It would maybe come out that for a community of say 80 all the work would be shared by say 40 ( kids and elders etc excluded).
I think in our currant society, that is totally out of whack, we have way more people working for us then we actually have, hence the need for foreign workers, coming from countries where they do not even have the amenities, that they will be now employed for for us.
When looking at it, i always find it horrible, worse then slavery, we do not even care if the person who is the cashier at superstore has housing. Well i think we care, or at least i do care, but did i ask? would i give him my couch? Housing a problem here in our very wealthy city of Whitehorse.
But the number, lets think about the number. It is impossible to sustain if the number of people working for me 40 hours a week extend 1 . One already to many. You know what i mean right? So the cashier works for me, let say 2 minutes, the week before 5 minutes! If we add up all those minutes... inclusive the miner, who had to mine the basic minerals and all to get a product in the store.
And of course this hooks into the land we use for our benefit, i might live on 20 acres, but my parcel is far greater then that, I have to include the ground that has to be mined for my benefit, roads, farms, factories, offices. on and on and on.
Not to make you too pessimistic, i love to hear what you do to minimize your slave driving? Everything counts. I mean it. I think all the little bits help, it is to me where we have to start. The only place we can start.
I will turn this thing off, right now, that is my start (the contradiction of it all).
2 comments:
This is a ridiculous concern. Society has developed beyond these kinds of questions. You waste your time asking them.
Over-population and greed.
At this point the planet is a lost cause. There are, of course many maybes that could change things but at the moment it looks hopeless.
That leaves us to our individual ways and means. Your husband was lucky to work a "good" job that he somewhat enjoyed. You both will receive (I imagine) the Canadian equivalent of Social Security thereby increasing your already sufficient income. Will you refuse it?
Most of India, Africa and Micronesia lack basic amenities we take for granted. These places have the highest populations.
It's ridiculous to ask if the factory worker is worth counting. We/they are inexorably drawn into the web of materialistic capitalism. It's called "a global economy."
You appreciate the natural opportunities you have to gather food. But look at India on google Earth and you'll see the entire country is tiny subsistence plots. A HUGE population living in mud huts. The chance to work in a factory and buy something to eat besides maize is an irresistable lure. Their culture views women as disposable.
These questions you ask show how your priveleged lifestyle has enabled you to be uninformed. Amazing!
People in India and Micronesia would laugh at Norberg. They islanders had been eating poi for thousands of years. They were ecstatic when Captain Cook gave them some Twinkies and Coke.
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