A Man Made For The Job [Politics]

Reading this post from The New Yorker on the effects of long-term unemployment—and how close we are to having a problem with structural, rather than cyclical, unemployment—puts us in mind of the book of Genesis, of all things:

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.

It often goes unnoticed that in this telling of the creation story, God puts Adam on earth in order to work: he is hand-made, literally, to be the steward of the Garden of Eden.* Work is more than something that gives us dignity or a sense of purpose, in other words. Taken at face value, it's what we were made to do. According to Genesis, it might be the failure to do the assigned task, rather than hubris in itself, that gets Adam and Eve kicked out of the garden. There is no scriptural record of the Lord God off-shoring the tilling and keeping duties after the First Couple's departure.

*Yes, Eve is fashioned to be Adam's "helper" and "partner." The takeaway is that she, too, is made for a reason.

Edit: What the Rude Pundit said. If I haven't made it clear above, one of the reasons to refer back to this scripture is that God gives work as a positive good for humanity. The people who callously toss thousands out of work to make a quick buck aren't just playing games with their finances; they're actually trading in workers' long-term health for profit. That, according to Genesis, isn't part of God's plan for people.