Three Categories of Work

This morning I was thinking about work and divided it into three categories.  Like I've said before, I really like putting things into categories.

So...anyway.

My three categories of work are Society-work, Family-work, and Self-work.

Society work would be any type of work paid or volunteer that benefits society in some way. It could have a big benefit to society such as helping to feed the homeless or a smaller benefit such as helping to facilitate the entertaining of children and adults by taking payments for laser tag.  

I think a lot of society work, unfortunately, has negative effects on society as well as benefits. For example, one might work at a clothing store that brings joy and fashion to young people. But the clothing is made from slave labor and the factory releases toxins in the water, air...whatever.

I'm guessing there are very few (paid) society-jobs that don't have some kind of toll on society. 

Family work is anything that is done to help the family. It could be paying bills, doing laundry, vacuuming, going food shopping, cooking, gardening, fixing the toilets, changing diapers, feeding pets, etc.

My feeling is that if your pets are rescue pets then taking care of them would also be included as society work. You're doing volunteer work at home to help with issues such as cat/dog overpopulation, abandoned and abused animals, etc. 

I wouldn't apply the same reasoning to pets bought from breeders or pet stores, but it would still count as family work.  

Self-work would be anything we do personally for ourselves to better ourselves. This would include things like meditating, exercising, learning a new language, journaling, learning circus acrobats, etc.

Sometimes the self-work may lead to family work or society work. For example, one might end up joining a circus which would benefit society by providing entertainment. And if paid, the money would benefit the family.

Oh yeah! That's something I've been meaning to mention.  Paid society work would also count as family work if the money earned goes to helping the family.  

I think sometimes people may overreach when it comes to seeing certain self-work as benefiting the family. For example, they may say their two hours at the gym each morning keeps them in good health, so they are around to watch their children grow up.  

Yeah. I'm not going to buy that. Sure, in a way, what we do for ourselves indirectly helps others. But I think we should be able to do things for ourselves for the sole purpose of doing things for ourselves. Too often I see mothers pushed to do self-care, because their children need happy mothers. Well, what about the mother's needs?

Can't a mom go to lunch with friends, because it would be fun for HER and not because it's important for her child to see her having fun?  

And here's another concept that's probably going to sound a bit crazy. I was rambling about it to Tim one day, and I think I confused him as well as myself.

My idea is that consumption counts as society-work. An example would be this blog. I am doing a minimal amount of work for society  I may be providing some sort of entertainment to a few people out there who end up reading this post.  But anyone who is reading this is doing work to benefit me. And I'm part of society. My blog would not exist without me, but it would be pretty meaningless without readers. I mean I really don't like blogging publicly with the idea that no one is reading.

What would TV shows be without watchers?

What would books be without readers?

What would restaurants be without eaters?  

What would Disney World be without tourists?  

What would a retail shop be without buyers?  

It can get a bit overly weird, though...if you think this way. Because then you can end up thinking, Wait...so if I get cancer, am I working for society by providing a patient to an oncology practice?  

BUT...if we think about it, medical and psychological professionals are kind of depending on bad things happening to us.  The same goes for police and lawyers.

Now I'm feeling somewhat conflicted for what I said about the guy going to the gym for two hours. I won't give him family-work credit, but I'm willing to give him society-credit for providing a customer for the gym?  

Well...no. I'm going to stick with my denying him family-work credit. But I AM thinking that most self-work probably could also be counted as society-work....in terms of consumption.    

I'll also add this.  I think the value of consumption-society work is dependent on the popularity of the product and content.  Or maybe not the value but the appreciation. I'm going to be more appreciative of one person reading this blog than Stephen King is going to be for one reader reading one of his novels.

Stephen King has enough readers and enough money.  I would say his book is providing more benefit to the reader than the one reader is benefitting Stephen King.  

With my blog, I feel the few readers are giving more to me than I'm giving to them. 

And....

There's a difference between eating at a new local restaurant that doesn't have a lot of reviews on Yelp yet vs eating at the most popular restaurant in town.

One more thing. I think there are also levels of consumption in terms of passive vs. active. One can be a passive Disney tourist. You pay your money, visit, have a good time, and leave. Or you could be an active one—writing blog posts, posting photos on social media, starting your own Disney World website, etc.  By being an active consumer of Disney World, you might be doing work for Disney...helping to bring them more customers. AND you may be helping to entertain people who are interested in Disney stuff. 

Maybe what I'm trying to do with this post is brainwash people into accepting the idea of a universal basic income. Because I think some folks shy away from it by imagining the government will pay people to sit around and do nothing.  But....if you think about it my way, then all people getting the basic income will be working through-out the day.