I was driving by their open doors the other day and saw three well loved vehicles sitting in the garage waiting for the call. A neighbor, Tim, is a fireman and I got to thinking about his pursuit of local employment. What would happen if anyone who wanted to be a fireman could work as a fireman where they wanted?
I think we would have a stable of people who enjoyed their job who were motivated to excel. They would show up at work and be happy with their station in life. Would they have less commitment? Possibly, but I doubt it. If you do what you love, you love what you do.
Now it is entirely possible that one would get bored or figure out that fighting fires is not their life calling. They would then leave and continue to seek their glory. I do not see that as a bad outcome. I see a much worse scenario where people stay in jobs they do not love simply because they must.
Now, if you take the monetary aspects out of it, we would have a department that could be severely over-staffed. Would that be such a bad thing? Certainly not for the Fire Department. It may pose issues around scheduling, but I think too many happy people trying to do a job is Good Thing™.
One problem that would come up is finding staffing for jobs that people do not want. Who would “clean the toilets”? How would you staff them without a monetary incentive? I do not have an answer for this other than to rely on my faith that everything would get taken care of.
Don’t misunderstand me. I have thought about this a lot. I can not think of any jobs that people would not sign up for. There are less desirable ones, but I have yet to think of one that no one would willing do. I mean, if that was the case, these jobs would not be filled just cuz someone is paying to have them done.
I do not see money as a very good motivator. I see the lack of options as a motivator, but then we are talking about institutionalized oppression (I’m against it 😉 I see money as a stand-in that folks can conveniently turn to in order to justify why Things Work™. But it is not real. In reality, no one chooses low paying jobs (cleaning toilets) because they feel it gets them money. They choose these jobs because the alternatives are less appealing (hunger, homelessness, etc).
If no one was hungry, if everyone had a home, if everyone was clothed and had good health care, if everyone could get all the education they desired… If folks could go where they wished without fear of violence, would they still want money to limit their options? How much finer if people could choose based on what they desired. If they desire to fight fires, why should they not be able to?
Would our society not be far more productive if folks could do what they wanted instead of selecting from a limited number of options?