Bring back the whip

May 13, 2025

Whenever I hear of productivity improvement, I think of slavery and the whip. Improved productivity assumes equality and, like slavery, improvement is always at the expense of the least equal in our society, be it the slavery of old or the wage slaves of today.

The whip, the loss of employment or the value of wages and conditions all are part of the productivity improvement story.

Those benefitting most from productivity improvement are not the ones most affected by our latest round of crises. They are the ones out of low-paid jobs, the homeless and those over-represented in our hospitals and jails.

We need to recognise that we are not equal and graciously adjust our modus operandi accordingly. Adjust our expectations so our society is not judged by productivity and the number of billionaires we have, but by the quality of our society.

That is not to say that we should be rewarded for sloth, but we, as a society, should recognise that we are not all the same.