If the robots can do it….why should you?

Work ethic ‘Protestant’ or not has been engrained in the American psyche. Although ‘work ethic’ is valued by most countries it is particularly pedestalized in the United States. The idea being that since we are in the land of opportunity with abundant resources and manifold freedoms all that stands between us and success is doing the work.

This is an idealistic notion and many in the workforce will tell you that it doesn’t reflect reality.

I’m not here to argue that one way or the other.

Todays discussion will be about work ethic in the time of automation.

There’s a lot of hype about AI and the death of work. With lots of cataclysmic warnings about job loss etc.

But just because something is overstated doesn’t mean that it isn’t happening.

And the reality is that jobs have been lost due to automation.

Which begs the question I asked at the outset.

If the robots can do it why should you?

This question has implications for work ethic.

If we’re constantly bombarded with the virtues of hard work why is it that corporations, employers, and politicians are so eager to automate?

The simple answer is that they’re looking to please shareholders and donors.  

But the question and answer are really just a catalyst for the following observation:

Hard work isn’t valued.

It is the product of hard work that is valued.

If the robots can do it why should they hire you?

For now the answer is that for the most part it’s still cheaper and less troublesome to use you.

But what about when it isn’t….?

What do we do with our work ethic?

This isn’t a recent phenomenon and automation is far from the only culprit.

Outsourcing being a much older and bigger contributor to wage decline and stagnation.

Clearly if hard work is valuable than it should be rewarded with decent pay or at least livable wages. Yet for decades companies have rushed overseas to find the cheapest labor.

If hard work was so valuable than wouldn’t construction workers be rich? Yes, there’s supply and demand and all the rest but that’s beside the point of hard work being related to economic success or even survival.

So we’ve been told that hard work is valuable but haven’t seen much evidence for the stability of its value in keeping a roof over your head or food in your refrigerator.

Well, the fact remains that  it is a virtue! We value hard workers even if we don’t pay them well!

Do we though?

Think about the social standing of a McDonald’s employee.

It isn’t mentally challenging, or particularly physically intensive, but you do have to stand on your feet all day, deal with customers, etc. so after eight hours I’d say it qualifies as hard work.

Yet, there’s an embarrassment to working at McDonalds. It’s just a job for upwardly mobile teenagers that will go to college and find real work a cubicle or build the next Facebook.

And It’s not just our friends the short order cooks who are the bottom of our economic caste system.

Ever heard the phrase: ‘Bag my groceries.’

Now it’s perfectly innocent without context but now imagine a guy in khakis, and a polo, on an office break with a shit eating smirk saying it to his old high school classmate with a sarcastic lilt.

While this exact stereotypical sitcom Esque situation probably doesn’t happen too often many variations of it do.

Thing of it is there’s plenty of demand for food so our grocery and restaurant people are essential. These folks work hard. Yet we perceive them as peasants who ‘couldn’t do no better.’

 Sure there’s no short supply of folks who will be forced to take the job for socioeconomic reasons. But in a culture that values hard work…why is it that hard workers are scoffed at?

And just a brief caveat on the abundance of ‘low level’ workers. There are clearly food service and grocery people that work harder than their peers. Do they necessarily see a higher wage or at least greater respect? Not likely or at least not by much.

So clearly we don’t really value hard work.

And automation is just one other lens that puts this reality in a clearer perspective.

So what do we do with this concept of hard work?

What good is it?

For this we have to step outside economics and get a bit philosophical.

If the robot can do it why should you?

Really the only thing that remains is personal development.

We’re not at the stage where we can upload the ability to do Kung Fu into our brains like Neo did in the Matrix films. And I doubt that would be very fulfilling.

So learning a difficult piece of music or how to fix the robots are examples of the sorts of things hard work will yield. A fit body by training in the gym etc.

The results of this hard work iterate out via a deeper engagement with the world and other people. This hard work makes living life better and more fulfilling.

See we’ve been talking about values.

There’s another virtue that automation highlights.

That’s life itself.

If the robot can do it then why should you?

Because the robot is not alive. You are alive.

It is not hard work that defines you or your value it is your humanity. Hard work is only valuable in so far as it lets you live up to your human potential.

If the robots can take away the repetitive, drugerous, dangerous, and exhausting tasks from our lives so be it.

We definitely need to restructure this society as that happens. Step one is recognizing the inherent value of human life. A value not based on service or production.

Then maybe one day automation will free all of us to live lives of pure cultivation and contemplation.

In the meantime workers rights, respect for labor, and structuring economies to benefit tangible producers over financial slight of hand is essential.

That’s all I have to say on this at the moment.

Now go work hard at living life!