In a conversation with Hugo de Camps, philosopher Jan Kandiyali makes a case for work as a social good in Marx’s vision of a better society. Not wage labor for its own sake: work that develops our capacities and meets someone else’s needs. It’s a useful challenge to both capitalism’s idea of a job and the fantasy that liberation simply means doing no work at all.
- His “mutualist” Marx contrasts with a view where individuals develop their talents merely alongside one another. Solidarity means valuing what we make possible for others.
- Cultural goods and aesthetic pleasure count as human needs; this isn’t a call for grim, subsistence-only socialism.
- A just distribution alone doesn’t settle who does the producing, what they produce, or whether their work helps them flourish.
- If automation cannot eliminate drudgery, share it among those able to do it. Meet everyone’s needs regardless of their ability to work.
Kandiyali doesn’t confuse an ideal for an immediate policy platform: criticizing a post-work utopia doesn’t rule out basic income as an anti-poverty measure now. His harder question is what kinds of contribution a decent society would let people make — and how to make that possibility genuinely accessible without turning it into a test for deserving support.