The Resisters

by Gish Jen

why haven’t we gone to a four-day workweek?” I said. “Why don’t we have job sharing? Why don’t we define taking care of children and the elderly as real work, regardless of whether or not it supports a ‘productive’ member of society? And while we’re at it, why can’t we call cleaning up the environment ‘work’ even if it doesn’t result in a product that can be sold? Why do we behave as if producing is still the be-all and end-all, when it’s not?” Eleanor took up the thread. “And why are the Netted so upset about paying Basic Incomes when there’s more than enough to go around? Why do they treat us like parasites when they’ve gone out of their way to deny us work? Is it because now that Big Tech doesn’t need us, they just want to winnow us? Especially as that solves the population problem, too? It’s not their first-choice solution no doubt. But what are they going to do now that they see moving to Mars isn’t going to work out, right?”