Member-only story
In Defense of the Protestant Work Ethic
It’s about service for humanity, not the wealthy.
I was brought up in the protestant tradition but long since became an atheist. That does not mean that I don’t despair whenever I read criticisms of the protestant work ethic and predictions of the end of work. I am growing tired of repeating what should be obvious: that we all have basic needs which can only be met by the exertion of human labor. AI can’t grow, harvest and cook your dinner. It can’t build your house or make your shirt and pants.
Yes, of course, machines can eliminate a large percentage of the human effort required. I should know, I spent almost half a century designing and maintaining such machines. But that experience taught me that machines require human effort to design and make them. They wear out unless looked after by skilled human beings.
Whilst they are designed to enhance the effort expended by manpower alone, they need a source of energy to do this. Even when that energy source is the sun, via wind turbines or solar panels, those, too, are machines the design and construction of which require a human labor input. The materials that machines are made from also require considerable human labor to extract them from their source, on or under the ground, and to refine and strengthen them.