In Wealth and Poverty, first published in 1981, George Gilder notes the growing calls at the time for guaranteed incomes and guaranteed jobs. Gilder draws on the writing of Spanish philosopher Jose Ortega y Gasset, to explain the emptiness of these calls, and the social and individual importance of finding and holding a job—in some ways for adults with developmental differences most of all.
“A guaranteed job denies the crucial fact that all jobs are to some extent created by the worker. It it is only he who can guarantee the job, by the act of supplying labor, undergoing hardship, achieving distinction, and thus become part of the struggle which human life improves itself.”
