The Man Who Makes Houses

I wrote the first draft on Oct 25, 2019 but never finished it. Enjoy.

He lives the life of a hermit. He eats fish from a river, drinks from the river, and spend the rest of his time making mud houses for fun. Since he had no responsibility, he was bored. He needed something to do.

In those houses, animals take shelter during rains and storms. Occasional hunters and photographers stay there. He does not charge them anything. He has everything he needs. The forest provides him everything for free. There is nothing to buy in the forest anyway.

A passerby once asked him what job he did. He said he was a builder since he used to build mud houses. The passerby interjected, "but you do not get paid for that."

He said,"well, I still build. That makes me a builder."

"I mean occupation."

"It keeps me occupied, so that makes it my occupation."

"You know, in the city, they would call you unemployed."

"And also everyone who lived before the invention of money."

"aha, a fun point."

"But they were definitely working. Were they not?"

"Guess they were."

"They plowed their fields and cared for their cattle, caught fish, made tools, raised children, prepared food, and milked cows.

"That was not a modern economy. They were primitive and undeveloped. They did not have to have jobs."

"Yet they all had jobs. They all did whatever they did best or enjoyed the most. Those who loved animals took care of animals. Those who liked to make things with wood and metal made furniture. Those who liked stones made weapons to hunt and kill animals that prayed on their livestock. Those who liked to fight and exercise strength were put to protect the animals from nocturnal predators like wolves and watch the community at night.

"What if someone did not work but enjoyed the produce?"

"It is impossible not to work. You can only choose what you do. They were not forced to choose one of the jobs. They could do anything that enhanced anyone's life in the community. But I admit it was possible to freeload.

"Got ya. That's why you need money to keep an account of what everyone did and how important what they did was. If they served more people in the community, they would get paid more. If they did something important for a few, they would get paid more.

"Agree. Perhaps, that is why money was invented. Or they might have tried keeping a record (ledger) of what everyone did. They might have chosen an honest ledger keeper to record everyone's productivity. However, it is likely that eventually a few dishonest ledger keepers were chosen who changed some entries for their friends. With the invention of money, the record got decentralized and no one could change it from a central point. I guess money was a smart invention."

"Yet you seem to be apathetic about money."

"Money is a measure of value produced just like pound or kilo is a measure of weight. I am as apathetic to money as I am to kilo. Do you think I dislike kilo?"

"But you can't buy anything with kilo? You can definitely buy things with money."

"Yes and no. Money is first earned from a sale. You buy things with what you produced and sold (exchanged). Money is simply a receipt of it. The reason who think you can't buy things with kilo is that you have not exchanged a kilo of eggplants for anything.

"Very well, how can we ensure everyone has a job in a modern economy like everyone working in your primitive economy? How can we create jobs for everyone?

"What do you mean by job creation? Is there nothing to be done? Does everyone in the community have everything he or she needs? Does no one have any problem that needs to be resolved? There is always something you can do. It is just as pointless to create jobs as it is to tell a river to flow or to tell the Sun to shine.

"What?"

"Every human has his own inclinations and experiences, which enable him to do something he can do the best job of. Doing that alone can he make the best use of his time and internal resources. Doing that alone can he provide the most value to society. You do not have to create a job for him. He already has it. In fact, it is imperative for him to do it because no one else can do it. No one else has his experiences.

"What if he can't find it? What if he does nothing better than everyone?"

"This can be true only if he has already tried doing everything, and you know that is not possible. Chances are he has not recognized that which he does the most exceptional job of. If he does anything other than that, he is denying his community his grace and himself his job.

"So you mean job creation is a hoax? All the talk about job creation at the capitol is useless?

"Yes. Most do not know what occupation means. The rest keep the truth in secret so people keep looking for jobs, in turn, for wage masters, who can be used to control wage slaves. Imagine a family who goes to live in a forest. Every member would take whatever he can do for the family. Everyone would take up their job without anyone creating it for them. This idea appears to have been eliminated.

"Makes me wonder if I am doing my job."

The hermit said, "haha, go get a real job, Mr. interviewer."