Post Work

Towards a Post-Scarcity Future 

To find our way toward a post-scarcity future requires not only a break between work and income but also one between profit and income.

In a Douglass Community post-work society, care labour will be given greater value, turning society away from the privileged status bestowed upon profitable labour.

Reductions in the working week will lead to significant reductions in energy consumption and our overall carbon footprint. Increased free time will also mean a reduction in all the products and services purchased to fit into our hectic work schedules. Using productivity improvements for less work, rather than more output, means that energy efficiency improvements will go towards reducing environmental impacts.  A reduction in working hours is an essential plank in a Beloved Community response to climate change.

A post work, post scarcity world is not a world of idleness; it is a world in which people are no longer bound to their jobs, but free to create their own lives. Douglass' post work, post scarcity policy draws upon a long line of Creatives, Academics, and Activist, who have rejected the centrality of scarcity and work. These Creatives, Academics, and Activist have sought to liberate humanity from the drudgery of work, the fear of scarcity, the dependence on wage labour, and the submission of our lives to the oppressive illusion of patriarchy. They have struggled to open up the ‘realm of freedom dreams’ from which humanity can continue its project of emancipation.

To live in a world of Douglass Community Economic abundance means to live in a world of peace, love and purpose, where everyone is guaranteed free access to housing, food, clothing, sanitation, water, energy, healthcare, education, child and elder care, as well as means of communication and transportation, without exception. 

The steadfast material security of Douglass Community Economics is what allows people to ask “How can I help the suffering and oppressed?” rather than “How am I going to live?”