50 Years Ago: Do you like your work?

How many working-class children follow the occupations to which they are adapted and which would hold their interest?

The working-class child is born into a system that at a certain period puts before him the problem of finding a master or starving. He must obtain employment of some kind regardless of his aptitude or desires. The family at home is growing; father’s wages no longer suffice to meet the needs, and consequently the child must accept the first job that offers, and if he is lucky(!) that means following the same trade until industry has sapped all his energy and eventually thrown him out upon the scrapheap to beg or find a place in the workhouse.

The private ownership of wealth, with consequent dependence on wages of the vast majority of the population is the cause of this maladaptation.

When wealth becomes common property and is democratically controlled by the whole people there will be such an abundance of workers available that the necessary work of society will not be able to absorb all this energy. It will then be possible for all the members of society to experiment in occupations until they find the one that suits them best.

(From an article “Square Pegs in Round Holes”, by G. McClatchie. SOCIALIST STANDARD, June 1923.)