The work

Much of the debate about reopening revolves ostensibly around people's need to work. People need to work to earn money to pay their rent, buy food, educate and amuse themselves, etc. People need to be able to work, therefore schools should open so that the state can provide institutionalized child care. People need to work, because the absence of work makes them feel like shit about themselves and more likely to abuse spouses, children and substances. None of this is bullshit.

But, as we have seen over the last few decades, much of the work people are doing is in some sense inessential. Using the word essential and inessential to characterize types of work that would be permitted during shut-down seemed harsh, but there was wisdom to it. Some things we out and out need: food, healthcare, public safety and first responders, physical plant maintenance and repairs (weather and entropy do not stop during pandemics), etc.

Other things at some basic level -- particularly in reference to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (see below) are kind of fluff. Gyms, restaurants, coffee shops, etc.

People do need connectivity to one another, no doubt. We love to socialize. Community is incredibly important and necessary. But it doesn't absolutely need to be done in person over short time scales. So modern communications technology (telephone, videoconferencing, the web, social media, going for walks) allow us to bridge this time when epidemiology can't let us be together physically as we would prefer. In fact, used properly, they help us bridge space and our own habitual "IRL" limitations quite effectively. People have been endlessly creative during the period of shut-down and it has been beautiful to see.

Meanwhile, the ability of e-commerce to let us service so many of our basic needs remotely* means that many of the jobs people have been doing in service industries around tourism and hospitality have been shown to be in some sense inessential: they service higher levels on Maslow's Hierarchy, mostly about congregation, entertainment and status. That doesn't mean that the work isn't valuable or that the people aren't valuable, it means that we can get by without those specific people doing those specific tasks for a little while, and we kind of have to.

But there is so much work to do. Even pre-COVID, the arguments around Universal Basic Income and the withering of the need for labor due to automation derive from the idea that the jobs people are doing are the only jobs that need to be done. Which is bullshit.

People are hating on each other worldwide. Race, class, political affiliation, nationality, gender, sexual preference, religion, you name it, people use it to justify themselves and condemn someone else. We all do it. We are all hard-wired to want our team to win. But it is not all we do. Each of us knows at some level that part of what we do, part of what we want, is wrong. It's just hard to sort it out because we are all ourselves. We need to overcome this condition of perpetual struggle, pretty much everybody senses it. Which means there is work do be done, we just don't know how to do it.

And then there are the basic problems: there are still too many people in poverty (though pre-COVID significant and often unacknowledged progress had been made towards mitigating this globally over the last few decades). Healthcare and education are apportioned both globally and within small geographies in ways that are grossly inequitable.

We will never get to perfect global equity and parity. We will never arrive at a perfect system of government. If we did, it would be boring, and really different places have different histories and cultures and want different things and that's OK. But we could do better, and we need to. So there is and will always be a lot of work to do, we just need to recognize what that work is and be willing to pay for it. Which, frankly, means having somewhat less of other things, prestige travel and ornate gewgaws that serve as markers of wealth.

At a low level, much of the work that is needed is service work, listening to others, understanding their needs, transcribing it and reporting it back to a center, and delivering the recommendations of the center back to the client, often with significant value added by the delivering agent.** Fortunately, that is the same work that people who work in hospitality (the labor force most displaced) are aready doing. It is just a somewhat different process, a little more complex, but they can do it and do it well.

What we need is good leadership to help us understand what we need to do, get us through this crisis, and transition to a next stage. And I don't just mean get rid of Trump, Bolsonaro, etc., though that's a good start. Each and every one of us has many roles to play.








*and yes, I am aware that a small army of people is out there helping us do that and that they are putting themselves at risk and we need to acknowledge and honor that by letting them work as safely as possible and making sure healthcare is available to them

**though it would raise propensity for corruption, ideally wouldn't it be great to be able to tip for great service from a social service provider?