I read a funny article about the acting Australian prime minister telling people to turn off Netflix and go bush for work. With travel restrictions the normal backpackers and seasonal workers who would normally fill fruit-picking positions, just aren't there, so fruit is rotting on farms, which is obviously going to affect the food supply chains also. The government is offering cash incentives for those who go and do these jobs, with around 50,000 unfilled positions in rural areas identified.
Now, while I don't care that much about this particular case, I think that the attitude of leaving value on the table is endemic, something I have written about from various perspectives often enough over the years. So many complain about their current life conditions, yet spend their time doing things that don't improve them - like Netflix.
I see this as a type of victimhood, where people feel that they are oppressed by conditions, but are unwilling to take responsibility and action for themselves - even when there is low hanging fruit for the picking. A large subset of people holding onto all the things they can't do, without picking up anything they can. In many ways it is similar to the rebellion against the "get a job" tagline, with the job being anything of practical value.
This isn't just about gainful employment alone though, it covers all kinds of things, where people complain about not having things like time, energy or loving relationships. Pretty much, while we feel and acknowledge that there is a list of things that are or should be important to us, we spend our time avoiding acting upon that list by satisfying our more immediate and quick-fix desires.
Perhaps it s through this instant gratification habit where everything is delivered on-demand, that we now expect everything to be the same - Overnight health, overnight wealth, overnight love. There should be a pill for everything, right? Well, at least an app where you can swipe to your perfect weight, income and partner. Wouldn't it be nice to achieve perfection of life, without having to do any work for it whatsoever?
I think that a large part of the problem is that because people insist on avoiding even the lowest hanging fruit, they never start along the path of building skillsets. Skills take time to develop and the harder a skill is to obtain, the more valuable it is due to scarcity. One of the scarcest skills in the workplace today is work ethic.
The problem with not developing skills is that there is nothing to trade to generate value, but there are still needs to be satisfied. This creates an economy of extractive reliance that will increase the wealth gap to the top, as fewer participants are able to compete. When there are too many people extracting, the system becomes untenable, which is why the employment rate is so important to a country's economic planning.
A tribe could happily sit and tell stories, but eventually they will starve where they sit. Things need to be done and while not everyone can or should be doing the same thing, a goal of individual value adding allows for individual protection also. The tribal elder build tribe collateral as a hunter or gather in youth and keeps adding value through the dissemination of experience. Even though they can no longer hunt for food, food is provided.
But what happens in an economy where people feel that they no longer have to build any collateral into the community from which they extract value? Is that where we are headed as more people make the decision to Netflix over work?
While in the early days of the change, this might be somewhat sustainable, as that wealth gap increases, technology advances and skill level drops, the consumer capabilities of the unskilled lesson to the point that they become a cost to the producers, which makes them very much disposable. And like most electronics today, it is cheaper to throw away than repair.
Economies are complex things that take a lot of time to fundamentally change when considered from the life of a person, not to mention the time it will take to significantly improve what we have built when there is every incentive for those it works for to keep it the same. However, complaining about it doesn't help, unless there is some action toward changing it. While most individuals believe that they have no power over the system therefore support the status quo, the irony is that if a majority of individuals shifted their behavior toward improvement, things would change and increase in velocity as activity compounds.
Yet, people are so disillusioned by conditions that they sit in place satisfying their immediate needs and actively ignoring the things that not only bring them a greater sense of quality of life, but also are roads to building collateral in the community. As I have said before, one of the biggest issues of the current economic environment, is a lack of ownership of the environment itself. We are renters and the owners are continually looking to increase the rent to the the point that they can evict us and extend their gains. When we as the community have significant ownership of the community, eviction is near impossible.
What I think is going on is that there is a fight on many fronts for relevance in this world, where even if people have not yet recognized or understood it, many feel irrelevant and disposable. This demotivates to try and change the conditions and instead, encourages them to sit down an avoid the best they can. the problem here though is that "the best they can" is going to be a diminishing return, as the passivity will decrease their abilities to build the various forms of capital and therefore, reduce their ability to both satisfy their own needs, or draw upon it from the shared resource pool.
I wonder, while fruit picking may be hard work, would a group of friends with nothing better to do striking out on an adventure into the bush be a bad experience? I wonder what they would discover about themselves and the world along the way and I wonder if after a few months away from their habits, they would want to go back to where they were and pick up where they left off.
There are so many low-hanging points of opportunity that we don't have to work very hard to improve our lives a little. Once there, it isn't a far reach to the next branch. Then the next. It doesn't take much for any of us to change the world, but it does take many of us to make it happen.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
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I wonder how many people will react upon my advice to get rid of their TV's?
We got rid of ours a few years ago and it's amazing how it freed us up to do other things that we love.
Skill shortages are dire in many countries and anyone can earn extra income by doing one or another trade as a sideline.
I have one, but my wife and I only watch a little on it. Our daughter gets about an hour of screen time each week now, which is a kids show of real people singing and dancing.
I stopped reading the news several years ago and only started scanning for a particular thing recently. This article was a headline piece as I scanned and the title reminded me of something I would write :)
There are a lot of skill gaps at the ,moment, one of them being the ability to recognize opportunity.
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So. Literal low hanging fruit. It will be interesting to see how that plays out in AUS and around the world. Here, in Yuma, Arizona, the work is being done by green card (non resident aliens) carriers, first generation citizens and illegal aliens.
It doesn't matter how high unemployment or how high minimum wage the real grunt work is done by immigrants. Mostly. We really see it a lot right now as 85% of the lettuce eaten in the US is produced in the Yuma Valley between Thanksgiving and Easter. Then it moves to Salinas, CA.
Just generally speaking, I'm guessing there is going to be quite a lot of spoiled fruit and shortages of the real thing...
I do have a TV. I even watch some things on it. Sports, mostly and some documentaries and docudramas. Call it 6 hours per week that it's on.
We'll see how this works posting here. A lot of things were broken for me yesterday on Hive.
In the summer here, I heard a massive amount of the berries in the forest went to waste. Normally there are a lot of seasonal workers flown in for a couple months of harvesting blueberries in the forest and strawberries/ raspberries on the farms.
What is interesting I think is how much of the food supply chain depends on immigrant workers, many of whom have no rights in the country and are considered filth. Do you think people know how "filthy" all their food is?
One of the good things about the on-demand of TV is that it is possible to choose what to watch. One of the drawbacks is that it is very easy to get sucked into watching nothing of value.
I have wondered where you have been, all okay otherwise?
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In all honesty, I'm crazy as a shit house rat. 18 days without smoking and I'm still mostly out of my mind. No concentration or focus (except, of course, that I really want to smoke) and just a horrible attitude. Other than that it's all good. Ahahahahaha. That's funny to even say.
So. This is the third time I've quit seriously, and I know that another week or two should have the worst of the physical effects behind me. So I'm just keeping on. Barely :)
The first 4 are the hardest, the next 2 okay. After that, it is plain sailing. Once done, don't ever pick up another - even for a small test.
There should actually be "lockdown" hotels for quitting. locked in a basic room, food slid in under the door....
This is my lockdown hotel. I have planned a relapse pretty nearly every day, but haven't gone anywhere to make them happen.
It's amazing to me how the cravings come and go. At this point I'll be wiggling along pretty well and boom! I want a cigar worse than I want to breathe.
Thanks...
What reminds me of that "A Day Without A Mexican" movie eh @bigtom13?
Alright! but since we are talking about Australia and its current problem here now, we better stamp a more international message on the matter.
Oh! and just with mischievous purposes, let's help old Big Tom a little with his current conundrum while he enjoy some relaxed time watching his two movies in peace during this period of lockdown.
Cheers brother! :)
I would just about turn myself inside out and spit nickles to have that Cohiba right there :)
Just generally speaking it's not the people from Yuma (or South Arizona) that bellyache about the migrant jobs here. We are really quite well mixed together and know that people are people after all.
All most all of the lettuce crews are Hispanic. It's brutally hard work and fast. There are a few 'angelo crews' but not much language mix inside crews. There are laborers I know that make their full time living on 6 or 7 months worth of lettuce.
One thing that does affect the job market is the 'semi retired' that are looking to add to fixed income and will work for much less (and without health insurance) that affects the broader job market.
I watched the entire British film. You hear the same thing here (not so much in Arizona but north of here) about migrants taking jobs. Most of ours are just like the film shows...
Something funny about Smallsteps is that we have tried from time to time to get her to watch a couple things we thought she might enjoy, but she far prefers drawing or doing almost anything else.
Entitlement comes to mind, this has happened quite quickly in my mind where people no longer wish to travel and work farms as was done in the 70's, nor do any form of menial labour let alone picking low hanging fruit.
Somewhere along the line we have created a period of technology where a lot of pride in accomplishment has disappeared, a planned throw away world, frenzy buying when it's broken buy a new one.
Every second person has a University degree, very few are prepared to start at the bottom and work up feeling a degree entitles them to high earnings with position. Any degree or trade is simply giving an outline on topic, being in the field teaches you how to use the knowledge, then add value.
Somewhere things have gone horribly wrong, yes too much Netflix or gadgets does not fill the void in actual living, creativity, pride, passion nor progress. Too much too soon most probably does make one feel their is one pill for each problem in life.
@tipu curate
Upvoted 👌 (Mana: 10/48) Liquid rewards.
Entitlement for sure.
I see this in my own work when I ma involved with hiring processes.
Just yesterday, I was talking with colleagues about education systems and how I find it strange that people can get their "master's" without having any experience in the field at all. To get an MBA in Australia, used to be at least that it required 6-10 years of experience to qualify. Here, I know people who have double master degrees, but have never worked a day.
I think many have bought into the marketing of what a good life is and they keep doubling-down on it, no matter how unhappy they are.
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!ENGAGE 25
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ENGAGEtokens.I'd go pick fruit as long as I didn't have to worry about any of the snakes or spiders over there getting me. Right about now it would be nice to be out in the fresh air and getting some exercise. I am sure after about a week of it I would be done with the whole thing... I often wish that I had the attention span to pick up some new skills. Part of me just feels like I am too old, and the other part of my has to fight with my ADHD to get anything done, so it is a struggle. I guess blockchain is a new skill I have learned, so I can't call myself a complete failure!
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country or city - that is always a concern in Australia :D
But just imagine, a small group of friends heading outback for a month or two to bond, earn some decent money and get some life experience that they wouldn't normally have much incentive to get.
The trick with new skills is being interested. I think Hive is pretty good at incentivizing growth through various interest channels.
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That would be a really awesome time to spend with friends. I'd be down if I lived over there.
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Sitting in the office, after four strenuous days of preparing and generating reports, I would happily change for a day and pick vegetables, but only for one day :)
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Who knows, you might get out there and discover a hidden love for fruit picking :D
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Before entering the university, I lived in a village, where I perfectly understood how to harvest. This understanding was the strongest motivator to study, so as not to stay in the village for life :)
But, often the body lacks a little physical activity. At such moments, you can go to harvest or start repairs. What do you think is more tedious to repair or pick fruit?
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!ENGAGE 20
Дякую
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I think everyone should learn this way.
Umm. Hard to say. Repairs you get to see the result of something you have done and is useful at a practical level. But picking fruit gives you the feedback of how much is picked. I think for me, the repairing would be more interesting, plus they (will hopefully) last and be appreciated for longer.
ENGAGEtokens.I would argue that Netflix is essential for society... But they are competition for entire ,,Puzzle and chill?''(some girls should be interested, right?) thing that I am trying to create... So I will not defend it. 😜
I would suspect that a puzzle would be a more attractive date for most women than Netflix.
I think after 3 hours of picking fruits or doing any other manual labor, the mask would come off pretty quickly. I think people should ask to see the Prime Minister out there picking fruit for three hours with a mask on, along with a dozen other cabinet people and the medical idiot that says mask wearing is needed.
We know that will not happen though, still it would be a fun thing to watch on Netflix, Fruit Picking Prime Minister: Episode one: The Mask Comes Off.
Getting out and picking fruit is actually refreshing. I remember just going bush for a few weeks when I had no commitments, picking strawberries and other fruits, camping and having a great time. It’s not a long term prospect of a job but fulfilling to do it at some stage. Free yourself and step outside your comfort zone!
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I would take the kids fruit picking if it's not during term (when homeschool group and all the other activities are on).
They probably wouldn't last a day XD
Or they might because they're getting paid for it.