ABSTRACT
Barnett believes that once given the opportunity to undertake healthy work, people would find joy in their labour, which would change their attitude towards life more broadly. Additionally, a ‘school of freedom’, for married men only,8 would be set up on land, where men could earn enough to visit their families and look for more permanent work, perhaps settling in countryside or emigrating to the colonies. Barnett stresses that his approach would take out of society a group of people who lower wages and take charity away from the more deserving. It would also serve to cultivate waste land. Finally, plan would individualize the unemployable, providing the opportunity for more wealthy to reach out on a one-to-one basis to offer ‘friendly guidance’. The recognition of the distinction between the unemployed and the unemployable is the first step in the solution of the problem of their relief. The unemployed ought to be left to their friends and to the trade unions.
