Organization of Work
Every member is equally important for the system under the organic perspective. If the system benefits from economic growth, all members should enjoy this gain; but, if there is a recession, all members should share the loss equally. All members make up part of the system. The well-being of the social system and of all members are intrinsically connected.
1) Role of Work
As part of the organic approach, work is the way individual provide the Society with a service, and gives the right to enjoy the fruits of others’ work. Work should be the vehicle by which someone manifests his vocation and fulfills his dreams. Work should allow a conscious man to provide his contribution to Society and to the well-being of others. Every member will be both a service provider and a receiver. When someone provides a service to the system, he provides to himself the right to receive from others.
2) Technology
The inclusion of technology to replace people in routine and repetitive activities should provide them with extra time to be allocated for their personal fulfillment. This will allow them to work on their vocation for the Society well-being, rather than executing a repetitive activity that does not add value to their personal growth. Technology can set people free of repetitive meaningless activities, in order to provide them with other type of activities aligned with their personal growth.
3) Vocation
Conscious citizens find their personal fulfillment by meeting their needs, performing their vocation, providing the Society with a service, helping others to meet their needs, and growing continuously both personally and spiritually.
Motivation is an important factor for performing a job in the Organic Society. Only an individual who is performing his vocation can be continuously motivated. Other than being suited, trained, or qualified, vocation is based mostly in the Heart, on what someone likes to do, the passion he feels when he is working in his field/area, and the task where he feels most comfortable to provide others with his service.
Since technology is replacing manpower in many activities, more people will have time available to perform their vocation. But, there still may be some activities not fully automated, where human tasks may be needed. In this case, conscious citizens will offer part of their time to perform these type of tasks, on a rotational basis by all members of the social system.
There could be two types of rotation: every member will rotate between his vocation and activities not fully automated; and, all suitable members will rotate to perform these activities, within a dynamic where consciousness and solidarity will shape the social system functionality.
All people should have the right to perform their vocation, unless they decide consciously to do otherwise, due to help needed in other areas. For example, when technology is not enough to replace manpower for given production processes or services offered.
4) Distribution
The organic perspective states that there should be no income distinction among people, neither by type of job, nor by intellectual level required to complete tasks, or any other rational justification. Every member should have the same rights and duties, because the system needs all of them to perform their task properly, without any kind of differentiation. Even an individual who performs a high technological or intellectual complex job, needs every other member of the system to meet his needs.
The following conventions will shape the income distribution in an Organic system:
· Every Organic Society member is a conscious individual who works for his well-being and that of others.
· All members have the right meet their material needs and have a decent life.
· The economic priority is not the profit, but the free, equal, fair and conscious supply of products and services.
5) The Consciousness of what is necessary
A conscious citizen will not try to get more than what he needs for living. Aware of his rights and responsibilities, he will be provided with all products and services required to have a decent life, and with the opportunity to provide others with a service. But, he will not get more than what he needs, nor will he accumulate goods unnecessarily. The consciousness of what is necessary will prevent the system from producing more goods and services than required to meet people’s needs.
On the supply side, people’s consciousness will set up a system where they will not work more than the necessary time to provide his service to the general well-being. In other words, a system will be set up where the working time will not be ruled by a minimum amount of working hours per day or week, but by the lesser of the minimum working hours per day or week to reach the required production levels.
Every member’s working time will not be ruled by a pre-determined number of hours per day, or per week, but by the amount of time needed to finish their tasks. This will be established based on the time someone needs to provide the Society with his service, which will always be guided by the balance between his well-being and that of others. He should not have to work 8 hours or more per day, if he finishes his duty faster. There might be exceptions in the case someone wants to work more than 8 hours per day. But, as mentioned previously, this amount of time should not be harmful to his health or well-being.
6) Organization of the Production System
The production system will be based on networked Organic Communities, set up properly to meet the Society’s need for products and services.
An information system will have to be put in place to organize production and distribution systems, so that the market economy’s “Price System” can be replaced. Other issues to be tackled by the organic production system are: productivity increase, technological innovation drivers, and efficiency improvement. The general principles of the Organic Economy follow.