There are WAY too many jobs.

Part 1: Polemic

Every presidential candidate — regardless of party — promises to create jobs. When are we going to get a candidate who promises to destroy some?

Nobody wants more work — what we want is more PROSPERITY. We want to feed, clothe, and shelter ourselves, interact with each other, have fun. Work sucks by definition and everybody knows it.

Nobody in their own job is trying increase their number of work hours. More and better output with fewer hours worked — that’s always the intention. So why on a national level do we have this absurd goal of creating “more jobs”? The goal should be more prosperity with less work.

“But people who are unemployed are unhappy. They’re more likely to do drugs and feel worthless and commit suicide.” Indeed they are, but retired people aren’t. It’s all about expectations. Tell people that having a job makes their life meaningful and they’ll feel depressed without one.

Our politics has lost sight of the fact that work is a means to an end. It’s not a legitimate goal. The goal is more happiness, more prosperity, more thriving. In our current system, having a job often is a means to achieving it. As a temporary measure, “more jobs” makes sense. But it is an impoverished philosophy that loses sight of the real purpose of social organization: not work, prosperity.