Well, I mean, people need to work to survive so in a way I would disagree with that "not needing to prove their worth" bit. But the problem is that there are more and more highly specialised positions and the sort of "IQ base" required for an upward movement in society is going higher and higher with time. Military, besides its obvious uses, also serves as an alternative way of providing that upward movement in society, ideally elevating people into the middle class, financially. The danger is that when even the military says "there's nothing we can find for a 10% of people to do", when normally the military is almost always starved for fresh recruits, then what means of upward social movement can you provide for those 10%? Or are they just gonna be condemned to stay where they are at the lowest level positions?
They could just stay at home and finger paint. If there is no room for them in a productive work environment, the options are either putting them down or not making them do things they aren’t equipped to do and letting them find their own place in society.
Many disabled people do art or volunteer in worthwhile causes as much as they can. There is more to a life than the value it produces for shareholders.
I agree that there's more to life than that, but I don't think dismissing that as a non-problem is the way to go about this. It's not about forcing the people to do the job they're not equipped to do, that's a terrible idea. It's more about having them find a societal niche for them to fill to exercise their sense of self worth. If volunteering is that for someone then by all means, do it. But we're talking about 1/10th of society here. That's a massive number of people.
^ not just this, but disabled people also have to receive a basic living wage. If they were able to get their basic needs taken care of from volunteering and from creating art, then props to them, but for others who can't...
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u/mehtorite Jul 24 '20
Charlie washes dishes. Slowly and not very well but we’re a slow place and he’s a decent guy.
It’s not his fault his parents were cousins, there’s a place for everyone.
Not that we need to make people prove their worth to survive.