Honest Toil

In a world as corrupt as ours, there's no such thing as honest toil. By working for the greedy parasites who own the means of production, who live in pomp and luxury while the poor suffer, we make ourselves complicit in their inhumanity. What we toil to produce isn't goods and services that actually help those in need. It's luxury for the idle rich. The premise of all our toil is that the selfish men and women who insist on living in luxury while the poor suffer should be given what they want and the poor who beg for our help should be ignored. It's a gruesome premise. We treat those who lack money as if poverty were somehow a defect in character. We pamper the wealthy as if money, and not virtue, could inspire our respect.

When I give a homeless man a dollar, he's far more likely to spend it on liquor than on food. What he needs isn't the resources to continue his dissolute life. What he needs is help overcoming his vices. The same is true of our economic system. By reporting to work Monday morning, I imagine I'm helping my fellow men and women. But what the system produces isn't used to feed the hungry. It's used to build mansions for the wealthy. The economic system, just like the homeless man, doesn't need more resources. It needs to be taught to overcome its vices and use the resources it has more wisely. My diligent toil doesn't benefit my society any more than the dollar I give to the homeless man benefits him.

Renounce all attachment to worldly things. Stop working for the greedy tyrants who rule the world of the flesh. Take no thought for your body, for what you will eat, for what you will wear. Your fleshly life will descend into squalor and chaos, to be sure, but there is no alternative. You can't work for the vile system of greed without sanctioning its values.

Anything you do to help the vile parasites who own the means of production is a stamp of approval for them and their greed. Perhaps your renunciation of the world of greed will inspire others to follow you, and the vile system of greed will finally collapse. Tyrants rely on our cowardly concern for our flesh to compel us to obey them. Once we despise our own flesh, they can command us all they want, and we will sit quietly and ignore them.

When Jesus began recruiting fishermen to his ministry, he didn't teach them to keep fishing and come visit him on Sunday. He taught them to leave their nets behind and follow him. The fish they caught weren't going to feed the poor. They were adorning the tables of the idle rich. By continuing their work, Peter, Andrew, James and John were making themselves complicit in the vile inhumanity of a system that feeds those who can pay and allows the poor to starve.

Even if a trickle of charity does indeed escape from the vast boiling cauldron of greed, why should the poor be content with a trickle? Why should I be content to work for a system that produces no more than a trickle? Love and charity must be the principles that rule my entire soul, not just an evening diversion after I have sated my fleshly desires.

By renouncing my lucrative position in the system of greed, of course I renounce my opportunity to use the booty for charitable purposes. But a system which pampers the rich and allows the poor to starve is a system of organized crime. Participating in it makes me a criminal. What act of charity can atone for this?

Hillel stood in the gate of Jerusalem one day and saw the people on their way to work. "How much," he asked, "will you earn today?"​ One said: "A denarius"; the second: "Two denarii." "What will you do with the money?" he inquired. "We will provide for the necessities of life." Then he said to them: "Would you not rather come and make the Torah your possession, that you may possess both this world and the world to come?"
The Jewish Encyclopedia, Volume 6, p. 399

Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, Jesus saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” And immediately they left their nets and followed. And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets. And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed Jesus.
Mark 1:16-20

‘Suppose there were a man, a slave, a labourer, getting up before you and going to bed after you, willingly doing whatever has to be done, well-mannered, pleasant-spoken, working in your presence. And he might think: … “I ought to do something meritorious. Suppose I were to shave off my hair and beard, don yellow robes, and go forth from the household life into homelessness!” And before long he does so. And he, having gone forth might dwell, restrained in body, speech and thought, satisfied with the minimum of food and clothing, content, in solitude. And then if people were to announce to you: “Sire, you remember that slave who worked in your presence, and who shaved off his hair and beard and went forth into homelessness? He is living restrained in body, speech and thought, in solitude”—would you then say: “That man must come back and be a slave and work for me as before”?'

‘No indeed, Lord. For we should pay homage to him, we should rise and invite him and press him to receive from us robes, food, lodging, medicines for sickness and requisites, and make arrangements for his proper protection.’
Gautama Buddha, Digha Nikaya, M. Walshe, trans. (1987), Sutta 2, verse 35, p. 97