Eric Weinstein on the crisis of late capitalism

Re:Eric Weinstein on the crisis of late capitalism by classichasclass on Wednesday July 04, 2018 @07:04PM (#17459908)

No, I think you overestimate it. There's this belief that circulates that people's occupations or pursuits are determined by their circumstances; they're bricklayers or plumbers or whatever due to a combination of factors beyond their control, and given the right magical combination of UBI/education/retraining/pixie dust, they'll move to some other job.

Meanwhile, my father-in-law was a tradie since he was a kid and even in retirement, supposedly freed of any occupational needs or financial necessity, he still does it because he likes to. I don't see him writing a screenplay or orchestrating a symphony. It's not his bag.

I agree that re-education and first education are certainly two different things, and I even agree that we would get more people interested in the creative pursuits if they were inculcated in them at an early age, but I disagree that this is the entire solution or even a substantial part of it because not everyone has that inclination.

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Re:Eric Weinstein on the crisis of late capitalism by sewercake on Wednesday July 04, 2018 @08:12PM (#17460105)

I think you're conflating trades, which often provide solid incomes, and lots of room for creativity, learning, and skill-development, with mind-numbing service jobs like being a cashier, delivery drivers, or call-center employees.

There is also some conflation between 'creativity', and 'artistic inclinations'. Lots of things require creativity, artistic practices only being one of them.

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Re:Eric Weinstein on the crisis of late capitalism by codebje on Wednesday July 04, 2018 @09:15PM (#17460318)

My brother-in-law prefers a mind-numbing job. He was a cashier for many years, until they promoted him to management and he had to have his mind "in the job" even outside of work hours, then switched to being a delivery driver, which is working out as his dream job - he can listen to sports broadcasts while driving, and when the deliveries are done, so is the job. No part of it comes home.

He has a degree in sports journalism, so he can be creative, and learn, and develop skills, it's that he doesn't want to do that for a job.

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Re:Eric Weinstein on the crisis of late capitalism by aninhumer on Thursday July 05, 2018 @07:01AM (#17462279)

I suspect the reason he doesn't want that job is that he doesn't want the stress and responsibilities associated with that job, not that he doesn't like being creative.

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Re:Eric Weinstein on the crisis of late capitalism by smadge on Wednesday July 04, 2018 @08:29PM (#17460155)

I second this. I wasn’t saying everyone should be painters or musicians or novel writers.

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Re:Eric Weinstein on the crisis of late capitalism by neffy on Wednesday July 04, 2018 @07:31PM (#17459978)

Working all your life in physical labour, to provide ungrateful offspring with the chances you never had will do that to you.

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