To the OP: Thank you for sharing your paper, but I disagree with your whole premise.
The root problem IMO is not due to a lack of jobs. The root problem I see is the spiraling increase in selfishness and greed for trinkets.
Since there are so many people working so hard to obtain more money so they can spend to satisfy their greed, this drives ALL prices up. So, even the few who are not interested in materialism and greed are forced to work harder and harder just to stay even and to get by.
With the mass of people progressively working harder and harder, the net result is that jobs for the lower skilled are getting harder to come by, prices spiral upwards, and stress, misery, drug/alcohol abuse, and greed increase all around - not to mention the increase in both husbands and wives having to work, sometimes multiple jobs at once (which can lead to broken households, etc.)
In medieval times, "most people did not work very long hours at all. The tempo of life was slow, even leisurely; the pace of work relaxed. Our ancestors may not have been rich, but they had an abundance of leisure." (
source). They had nothing much more to work for except food, drink, clothing, and shelter. Now, there are so many people working so hard to spend on their
luxurious trinkets that our ancestors were blessed to never have known (iPhones, iTablets, big screen TVs, sports cars, massive wardrobes, 30-year mortgaged mansions, etc.), that this economic activity drags the prices of
basic neccessities upwards as a consequence. Where does that leave the non-materialistic, minimalist individuals who have little or no desire for these trinkets in life? They
still need to work harder and harder, because the cost and price of those basic necessities they can't avoid spending for continue to rise due to the actions of the mass of increasingly selfish and bored individuals.
All because of selfishness and greed for trinkets, NOT because of a lack of jobs (although lack of jobs is caused by selfishness and greed). The individual should not have to work harder and smarter (harder and smarter than who? Other people? What if everyone tries to work harder and smarter?) No ... most individuals are working too hard and too "smart" already. Instead, the masses need to wake up and live
far under their means, share their excess, live wiser, and see beyond their own "gimme-gimme" hands. If the masses started to embrace love, peace, simplicity/minimalism, and generosity as the highest ideals instead of greed, selfishness, materialism, and covetousness, society as a whole would need to work less and less (don't need all those trinkets, after all), prices would start to go down, and many of the problems we have today would melt away automatically as a consequence.
The real "human service problem" is not all about figuring out how everyone can have access to more jobs to move upwards to find momentary pleasure in more things (an economic issue) ... it's all about figuring out how to awaken and motivate everyone to move downwards to find lasting happiness with less (a heart issue).
. I could say a whole lot more, but it would take up volumes of books. Jen Hatmaker speaks of anti - greed values which I love like in her 7 book. Her focus is having compassion for the poor. I can't stand this dog eat dog society. I wish I could say more, but I do not have time. I feel as though I am not allowed to have happiness like a child. Our values of simple living don't seem to matter to anybody anymore! My husband quit his job to care for our son, and we are struggling to make ends meet on just my income alone. It shouldn't be this way.
