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Diego Remus

Editor-in-Chief, Startupi

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Can we bridge the gap between people without jobs and tasks without doers?

I mean, those issues which are everyone's problem, but anyone else's responsibility! Those things we don't do, governments don't do, nobody does - but are still causing us trouble. Those problems. And those people without jobs. Won't we ever match them?

Topics: Social Entrepreneurship Urban Development collaborative innovation education political action politics social change sustainability
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    Lee Wilkinson 20+

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    Apr 20 2011: Given that I come from the thinking that we do not have 'RIGHTS" if we did that would mean at least a large % of people born would by default have to supply those rights. That said, I also believe that the way for a society to function is through community cooperation. If you are out of work then you should have some income to support you getting back into work, food and shelter, that said, why is there such a stigma with people receiving welfare, doing work which benefits the community in order to justify receiving that support. There are many people looking for work at the moment who have skills going to waste which could benefit communities all over the world. They would feel better for the most part and the benefits would be well received. It would solve the problem of many of the cuts we are seeing in programmes.

  • brihaspati s

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    Apr 19 2011: good question!.
    give a few examples of the issues at hand. ANd then we can come up with particular and general ideas.
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    joshua bigley

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    Feb 25 2011: There are people on this site with ideas--but no resources--connect them. match the unemployed with the tasks. Solicit them to join task groups, support groups, outreach groups. Endorse them.
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    joshua bigley

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    Feb 25 2011: Tasks include outreach, infrastructure, parkland, clean-up, Superfund clean-up, social care, veteran care, counseling, small businesses--matching skilled and educated people with capital and resources to start-up NGOs, business. Creating co-ops, farmer's markets, urban gardens, green roofs, cooperative businesses.

    These are topics I don't see much of on TED. maybe TED is elitist.
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      Angelina Naidu

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      Jul 18 2011: have to agree joshua! I am an art teacher passionate about social and educational change amonst afew other things!...I have recently moved to Australia and have been finding it very hard to find work and would love to be involved in a collaborative project matching skills and objectives...for example I would like to see more projects in South Pacific nations creating 'trade', educating and not simply aid. I have working with and experience enormous wasteful projects that only fuel the destructive fires on any real development. I do not have the resources nor the connections to establish a project myself but would be more than happy to contribute to something..for e.g. I would love to spend time back in Fiji re-shaping identity, attitudes and re-installing traditional knowledge at early years levels through the arts. Changing attitudes to even small things like littering which is a HUGE problem in the nation and the carelessness filters through to the rest of life. I have a few ideas and goals but my thoughts often drowned in the depression and drain of job searching and I have little idea where and how to get my ideas off the ground or see my passions through....AND i am not too proud to do any job, I am just not getting enough full time work. However, even if I were working full time< I would love to contribute to several projects where I could help...I know many of my 'skilled' friends would be keen to contribute to co-ops or projects that 'teach a man to fish' rather than give him a fish. Another project I would like to see happen...especially in the Pacific and developing nations is 'green schooling' ...more about that another time!!
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    Benjamin Conners

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    Feb 20 2011: I think this question reveals an underlying issue... Do we need to be changing the person to fit the task? It seems somehow unethical. Yes, we need to become more responsible as humans on this planet, but we also need to get more creative! Change the task!

    This doesn't help a whole lot (I know). I agree with Harald Jezek... can you provide us with some examples of these labor-less jobs?
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    Harald Jezek 50+

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    Feb 17 2011: Oi Diego
    Do you have any particular issue(s) in mind ? Anyway, I think there is not a single answer to this question.
    Part of the reason might be logistics. For example unemployed people probably are not aware that there are jobs out there waiting for them.
    Another reason might be that governments help too much in the case of a person being unemployed (especially true in Europe) that the unemployed has little incentive to look for a job and even less a job nobody wants to do in the first place.
    It also might have to do with pride. Somebody with an university degree would probably have to be close to dying of starvation before taking a job as garbage collector.
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      joshua bigley

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      Feb 25 2011: I disagree sir. I feel that most of what you are saying is stereotypical and political slander. I would take a job as a garbage collector if i had few options. WPA is not welfare. The rich and powerful are subsidized--that's tax payer money--that's welfare for the rich. The bailouts was welfare for the rich--providing luxury vacations.

      Why not subsidize health care--creating medical jobs by the thousands and hundreds of thousands. Why not subsidizing green business and organic farming stimulating innovation and empowering communities.

    • Elizabeth Hennigan

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      Mar 15 2011: MOST people WANT to work. Why baspheme the majority of unemployed by stigmatizing them with erroneous labels, propogating slanderous opinions about individuals and groups you know nothing about? By doing so, you endanger them and their children in deep an countless ways. Please stop.

      Anyone making such pure conjectures and speculations should have a good long look in the mirror. Words such as these and put in such a way, could only come from someone whose guilt ridden conscious does not have the courage nor ability to face their own demons and take responsibility for their own actions. Their fear, anger and confusion have been petrified and pressurized inside themselves for so long that the only way they can feel relief is to project their maladaptive views of themselves onto an entire group of other people.

      Try something constructive for a change. Ever serve food for the homeless in a soup kitchen?

      Until you have walked at least 100 miles in another persons shoes you can't begin to fathom the reasons for their behavior.

      My favorite saying comes from the result of a published 10 year study on baboons:
      THE WAY ONE IS TREATED IN A BABOON SOCIETY, HAS EVERYTHING TO DO WITH THE WAY THE BODY FUNCTIONS.
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    joshua bigley

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    Feb 17 2011: Sorry--didn't see you are in Brazil. maybe my comment doesn't apply. But I think similar actions could probably be taken in Brazil. If you don't know, a WPA was government bail-out money used in the 1930s depression era to stimulate jobs in mostly sustainable green ways putting people to work so they can survive, thrive, be active members of the community, and spend money in the economy lifting all boats--empowering all.
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    joshua bigley

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    Feb 17 2011: WPA--bailout money should have went to WPA projects, small-business start-ups, local green businesses, national weatherization, urban farms, and design projects. Jobs and innovation would have flourished--consumers spending on healthy sustainable ways of life, empowering individuals and democracy.

    Instead we gave tax payer money to the rich elite who stole it from us in the first place. The gov should have bought failing industries and financial firms and broke them up into a hundred pieces, making some of them co-operatives, and at least one a totally government owned business with the profit recycled into the product, the business, the owner-workers, community infrastructure, and national debt. When the debt is paid, the profit would continue to support the former.
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