What do you think about public-service ads encouraging "volunteering"?

[Ken Burch]

There's nothing wrong with encouraging people to help out in their own communities, it's something we all should try to do anyway, but it's always seemed to me that those ads, especially when they're put out by corporations, always have a subtext of "we make our employees ladle out gruel at the soup kitchen in their spare time, so it's OK for us to bankroll right-wing politicians who cut social services down to nothing".

Do you get that kind of vibe from some of those ads?

[valerief]

1. You mean the dreaded community organizers???? nt

[Ken Burch]

2. UH...no.

n/t.

[Modern_Matthew]

3. I've never seen one in Kentucky. n/t

[RandomKoolzip]

4. You should go to graduate school for library science.

Apparently the future for public libraries is cutting all paid positions and letting volunteers staff AND run the places. Of course, that's the decision being made with our futures as soon as we've invested tens of thousands of dollars in school (y'know, in an effort at job re-training, bootstrap shit).

All prospective librarians just out of grad school are now being advised to accept volunteer positions - but don't expect even a part-time paying gig. So now we're saddled with debt the rest of our lives and back to square one with regard to the job search.

Look for more adverts in the media pushing "volunteerism;" it's the new code word for "unpaid work is the future for all of you."

[Ken Burch]

5. That's ALSO part of my point.

We're heading for a future in which any use of your time that isn't based SOLELY on making the rich richer will be unpaid(and, of course, mocked by the moneygrubbers).

All the more reason we need to create a whole different system in this world.