Suppose you had seven children.

All of them, having reached the age of maturity, were jobless and were encouraged to find a job.

Child one keeps applying for different jobs in the technology industry but nobody will accept them. However, they keep trying and trying. They are like Sisyphus. They also aren’t doing anything as they wait.

Child two makes themselves exclusive to doing odds and ends for a decent amount of money. While child one thinks jobs should be sought via the application process, child two is averse enough to this that the inconsistency of what they do day to day is intentional.

Child three applied an actual application for an “actual” job and found one. The catch? It’s an organized crime job. However, it’s not immoral even though it’s illegal. They’re the personal household assistant of the mob boss. They too get paid immensely.

Child four also applied an actual application for an “actual” job and found one. The catch? It’s not illegal but has ethical issues involved. They mastermind ways to monitor and deal with those considered national threats. They too get paid immensely.

Child five, too, applied an actual application for an “actual” job, but it’s something they’re utterly terrible at doing, skill-wise. They’re tasked with therapy but have so little skill it’s considered useless. Child five, despite this flaw, gets paid decently by the office building.

Child six applied for a job and was appointed into one that had the completely foreseeable result of causing many dozens of people to lose their own job. They maintain a scenery-modifying machine which caused and still threatens to cause many scenery workers to become like spare cogs wandering the streets in search of a purpose. Child six too gets paid well, despite also having a version of their job that undermines the importance of the profession itself.

Finally, child seven is a volunteer, one with no ethical or legal issues involved, no issues finding a job, and no limits whatsoever in what they can do for others, and they do it all for free. However, after a few months of doing it, they think “that’s enough for me” and they never do a deed again.

One day, you realize you are passing away and summon all seven children to your home. You have specific things, all of which only one child can inherit, and due to the nature of these things, it has to be the child whose deeds make them out to seem the worthiest, as it’s the only tiebreaker. Which child do you prioritize as being the best candidate for the one with the highest worth?

  • souperk@reddthat.com
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    10 months ago

    The question is a bit misleading but I understand the desired output is an ordering of the children based on the information provided and our own personal values.

    I will start with some thoughts on each child:

    1. If they are not doing anything while waiting to be accepted, then they got to work on themselves. They could be starting personal projects, learning new things, exploring new hobbies, volunteering… whatever being frozen like that feels sad.
    2. They are true to themselves, and I applaud them for that.
    3. No problem with working for the mob, there are far worse things they could be doing.
    4. I would need to know their intent behind what they are doing, ethics are not black and white, maybe they see some merit to their endeavours and maybe they are right in the end. The specific example would send them to the very bottom of my list (ACAB).
    5. I am willing to bet there is a phobia for that, I would try to give them the support they need to find their calling.
    6. I am not against progress, it’s not their fault that people will lose their jobs. In the first place it wouldn’t have been an issue if people weren’t so dependent on our capitalistic overlords.
    7. They are taking a break, it makes sense to me, keep it up pall, in no time you would be finding new ways to create a better world for all of us.

    Overall, I feel the descriptions are too judgy, people are doing the best they can, and you got to give them that.

    If I had to choose a single child I would go with #7.

    Overall my ordering is 6,7 > 2,3 > 1,5 > 4