The “what would your job be” discussions also don’t get into how assigning one type of role for people is shortsighted. One, because people are not tabletop archetypes, people fill a variety of roles within their communities. Two, people’s roles change and are often determined by what is missing from the community or adjusted to accommodate the absence of something/someone.
It also fell immediately into the trap of people getting cussed out for picking that they would want to make art because art “doesn’t contribute to the community in the way manual labor does,” and people were picking manual labor to appear as someone who wouldn’t shirk duties, completely forgetting to account for swaths of population who cannot do the physical labor.
“Oh, I’d pick to dig ditches so I don’t look like a lazy freeloader who wants to make art.” As if the worth of someone within a community is tied to what they do for everyone else, with manual labor being the most contribution. Manual labor is undervalued in a capitalist society, but the solution isn’t valuing it as the highest form of contribution, where those who cannot or do not labor are leeches.
Whether this is an isolated commune within current society or society is made up of isolated or interconnected communes, there will be an amount of labor that is required for the maintenance of whatever community you are trying to accomplish, but very much in a help where you can, make only sacrifices and compromises you can actually afford to, and be open to your “role” changing sort of way.
People can be caregivers and builders and protectors and should STILL be afforded time to be lazy, should be afforded time to just entertain and be entertained. Any utopia/commune/plan for the future that does not account for free time is not even truly livable, let alone “utopic.”
