New Cities/New Soviets

April 02, 2003

Semiployment

Part One in an ongoing series

In which is discussed the joy, and sorrow, of marginal employment...

Pros:
Time to self
Time with girlfriend
Get to stay home alot
We live on our own schedule    
Cons:
Time to self
Stay home alot
Limited funds to go out
We don't live on anyone else's schedule

That's the first take. We live in a city of the divided social life. Work and play/night and day/week and end. The terminal party. The terminal sewer. To go out just to work is a wan and grey world. To go out just to party is financially untenable. Work/party in the 9-5 (or 6 or 7) and 5/2 is impossible, produces terminal faults. My feet, knees, and hips started to go out from full-time kitchen work, and I would rather be moving around than sitting in an office. And there is no way I will go to the fucking gym or worse, get a career...


Back to the problem.
We are generally able to go out
only in the approved 5/2 ratio
of work to not-work.
or said another way,
we are alotted
2/7ths of a person's time.

The slave was divided in his being,
and declared 3/5ths of a person.

The wageling is divided in his time,
and fares rather worse, (purely quantitatively of course)
with only 2/7ths of his days off.
And we gotta eat the down time!
Two weeks off in summer
to blow any extra cash you got,
and shaa-waah, presto, you're back to the beginning.


Apply the same logic to yer whole life an' you gotta career.

So semiployment. Douglas Copeland lays out a pretty good working plan, William Gibson backfills the urban detail...

I went to high school, I worked until cooking school, I worked when I was
suspended, I worked after cooking school
until I hurt so bad I hadda stop

I took 8 months off.
My girlfriend wasn't working for the first 4.
4 months together; we:
took out the closet
moved all the furniture around
upgraded our computer
She helped me learn to write
I helped her get a job
4 months she worked; we:
She helped me write
I helped her do her job
I finshed zeropride.

Not bad.
We planned 4 months for ourselves
and we never wanted for activities
We slept when we wanted
and we learned how to use the whole day
We loved the delerious city
and our shoebox in it
and we furnished our nest
for our own love.


You cannot possibly learn to make your own plan
if somebody else always controls the schedule!

/cut/
End Part One

Posted by Sam at April 2, 2003 07:47 PM

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