If loads of people don't work because there is nothing for them to do, then why has there been so much immigration into Ireland in the last 20 years?. As for "loads of people on payrolls doing next to nothing" those employers won't survive in the long term.
It's an interesting development, the mass immigration. The vast majority of those people do work in productive jobs. They work in restaurants, or supermarkets, or factories. These places still follow the capitalist paradigm. No boss is going to employ someone in a restaurant to sit around, for most of the day, making cat memes on the internet. The low paid are worked very hard and, in my experience, still ruthlessly exploited with regard to breaks, holiday pay, overtime etc. The minimum wage is regarded by many employers as a maximum, over which they cannot tread.
But there are large sections of society, in well paid jobs, both public and private sector who are doing next to nothing. Or, at least, they can do what they really need to do in a fraction of the time for which they are employed.
Automation, computerization have improved efficiency enormously in the last 40 years, but we seem to be " working " even longer hours. There is no imagination in employers or government policy makers.
One good example I know is the Royal Mail in the UK. Back in the good old 70's, when unions had a bit of pull and got proper worker friendly deals for their members, a deal was negotiated known as " Finish and Go". The postmen would collate the mail every morning, deliver it and then return to the depot to return any undeliverables. This was calculated to take 8 hours, which was the working day. So the deal allowed postmen to complete their tasks and then go. Sometimes they'd finish a bit early, sometimes a little later. Everyone happy.
Then automation started to make the first part of the job much more efficient. The mail was already collated, so the posties could, after a quick check, hop on their bikes, at 6.00am, with the mail ordered and ready. They then delivered the mail, as quickly, as they could, often finishing by 9 or 10.00am. The mail was delivered quickly, efficiently and the worker had a bit of free time for gardening, heading to the cinema, or child care, or whatever.
Then the private sector gurus came in and, appalled, demanded that the posties work their contracted hours. The policy was changed from " Finish and Go" to " Finish and go do something else". Of course, this just resulted in the postal workers slowing down, so that they still completed their contractual obligations, but over the 8 hour day. Result was a drop in the quality of service to customers and a drop in the morale of the staff.
There are so many jobs just filling up the week, when they could be done in half the time, if people were incentivized. Instead, like the postal workers, people know that if they completed their tasks quickly and efficiently by Wednesday lunchtime, the employer would pile another load of, largely, pointless tasks onto them.
We were all promised more free time, more leisure, less work as the automated world developed and we could easily have it, but old habits die hard. The morality of " hard work" must still be the price of any reward. Even though, those who work hardest, the shop workers, the factory workers, the restuarant staff, are paid the least.
The raising of the pension age is just another example of this nonsense. Forcing people in their late 60's to trundle off to work , instead of allowing them a few years of well deserved retirement. I mean 70 is regarded as vulnerable, prone to serious complications from a simple virus. There are a host of other chronic illnesses, not to mention tiredeness, fatigue and reduced mobility, which will quickly effect all of us when we go past 65 ( or even earlier). Many of us will be dead before we get to 68. Are we really so devoid of imagination, that this is the best on offer?
www.irishtimes.com