Public Address | Cafe | Speaker: I am a Really Useful Engine

Rosemary McDonald

Sun, 29 May 2016 15:53:30 +1200

or by subsistence living and forgoing retirement savings. I’d love to see a special extra pension for such folk.

Ta, Sacha.

Seriously though...having no retirement savings nor any prospects of same is not too bad...until some expert on the radio tells me how important savings are for my future security.…

linger

Fri, 27 May 2016 21:42:22 +1200

Yes, “community service” awards should have more actual remuneration attached. Not least because, generally speaking, the individuals who deserve them also have a more accurate recognition of where the money should be spent, and more willingness to send it there.

(That being said, “community service” should be distinguished from “service…

Rebecca Gray

Fri, 27 May 2016 17:03:19 +1200

That would be great, though I have a horrible suspicion that any effort to get such people an extra pension would be met with objections about how they had CHOSEN to forgo earnings by (looking after family/ doing community work/ starting up arts programmes, whatever). They could have just chosen…

Sacha

Fri, 27 May 2016 16:54:10 +1200

It's also unfortunate that certain types of caring/ voluntary/ creative work can only be done long-term by people who have a high-earning partner

or by subsistence living and forgoing retirement savings. I'd love to see a special extra pension for such folk.

Rebecca Gray

Fri, 27 May 2016 16:40:50 +1200

Yeah seriously, those people who agree do the barely-recognised community and caring work are probably the unseen glue holding society together. Which is really nice of them, but doesn't exactly make the situation ok.

It's also unfortunate that certain types of caring/ voluntary/ creative work can only be done long-term…

Emma Hart

Thu, 26 May 2016 20:39:35 +1200

Aw shucks, you guys. I won't pretend that's not completely wonderful to hear. I still feel like an Internet Random, though.

Sacha

Thu, 26 May 2016 20:29:20 +1200

entire house to move

crikey, that's major

Sacha

Thu, 26 May 2016 20:26:35 +1200

the market sets a fair value on people's contributions is not just flawed, it's lunacy

I've been privileged to work with long-time community workers who are so unrecognised – but that's not why they do it. Humbling. As is watching what parents do.

Sacha

Thu, 26 May 2016 20:21:55 +1200

Anyone recall the outrage when the government stuck explosives on a logging helicopter and blamed us?

Shit, was that Native Forest Action days? So much important activism.

John McCormick

Thu, 26 May 2016 19:28:16 +1200

I have been an accountant for 30 years. It has led me to frequent musings on how we arrived at the financial system we have. My first job out of university was with a manufacturing company. I give myself credit for wondering how it happened, that at the age of…

Lilith __

Thu, 26 May 2016 16:32:52 +1200

That post is a great example of what Emma does so well: writes things that we come back to for years after, because they Say It Right.

Emma, I know I'm not the only one whose life you've changed for the better through your writing. Before your Something Chronic blog…

Russell Brown

Thu, 26 May 2016 15:47:26 +1200

but I will say I know you wrote that Missing Stair piece among all sorts of other great stuff, and that looks like pretty bloody useful/valuable work from where I’m sitting.

That post is a great example of what Emma does so well: writes things that we come back to…

Ian Dalziel

Thu, 26 May 2016 15:39:45 +1200

doing the loco emotion
stationary esteem engines
never change tracks
always gauging the difference
between rolling stock,
laughing stock,
and lost attraction...

Doing something is better than doing nothing.

and at the risk of putting Descartes before the hordes:
Cogito ergo something...
I think therefore I can
I think for…

Rebecca Gray

Thu, 26 May 2016 14:32:14 +1200

Emma, that link is heartbreaking (quite similar in some ways to what Sarah Wilson, who I mentioned earlier, has been writing).
I’m sure you’re not here looking for assurance from some internet random, but I will say I know you wrote that Missing Stair piece among all sorts of other…

Moz

Thu, 26 May 2016 14:25:06 +1200

while I work my way through the literal mountain of unpaid work I'm doing

This is so easy to get into. I'm not kidding at all when I say that I have spent periods voluntarily unemployed so I can do full time unpaid work, and found myself saying "I should…

James Littlewood*

Thu, 26 May 2016 13:28:59 +1200

I hate it when someone asks me what I do, I spend 5 minutes trying to explain it, and they go

"Oh, I get it, so it's a labour of love."

Yeah. 'Cause I have sooo much surplus labour to deliver.

BenWilson

Thu, 26 May 2016 12:59:13 +1200

Are you me?

Word, sister. This is a fantastic post. I have so much to say on it, but unfortunately it will have to wait a week, while I work my way through the literal mountain of unpaid work I'm doing. I've got an assessment a day, data to mine,…

Emma Hart

Thu, 26 May 2016 12:05:10 +1200

We all have different comfort zones with this sort of thing, but some of us genuinely feel uncomfortable taking money for nothing, sitting around while someone else looks after us, or generally not appearing to work as hard as we could. This may be the sort of learned cultural hangup…

Russell Brown

Thu, 26 May 2016 10:41:36 +1200

I have a version of this that I tell myself: I want to be a useful citizen.

To that end, I try and have one or two unpaid governance roles (preferably one) where my experience might be useful.

Also, what I do here very rarely attracts anything like a reasonable…

Public Address

Thu, 26 May 2016 10:41:36 +1200

Discussion from blog post.