I heard that back in the days, people used to just go when their work was done on the farms and there was no concept of 9-5 (these days seem 24 hours work). There used to be a lot of holidays. Is that true? If it is, then given the abundance in technology, why our work hours increased and why do we have such weird lives that we live to work?
Man, I get where you’re coming from, it all seems endless and stupid.
I was just thinking about this the other day in fact, but then imagined what life was like as a hunter gatherer. The search never stops for food, there is rarely an abundance, and nothing to keep that abundance from rotting away when you have it.
Every creation we’ve ever made is to simplify our lives and/or to protect them. Building those things increase abundance and leisure time for awhile, but then the birth rate goes up and we need to build more. Building better communication (to simplify our lives) meant that more people from farther away need stuff, so we need to increase production, so more workers are required. It’s a feedback loop.
Some world events pause or reverse this loop for awhile, but it never stops. If you want these things that help around the house so you don’t have to do them, that costs money, so you work.
I’ve seen stories of people who just move out to the woods for decades, but though they are ‘independent’ from the man, they’re still struggling day to day and often end up stealing stuff that others bought so they can get by, or relying on common taxpayer services when things go awry.
I think it’s simply a part of the universe. I learned once that life isn’t the opposite of entropy, it’s a small opposing force that itself decays. Something something rage against the dying of the light. Anyway, /rantoff
Awesome insight but I think the way that I have heard people being demanding in corporates in the name of “work ethics”, the recessions, the unofficial denial in hiring new people in some companies, the toxic behavior done by managers and those on upper levels to their juniors, is not the part of the universe. It is something artificially imposed to suck the marrow out of our lives. People who are supposed to be retired are still working in some places. I think the work conditions should be better. Or if they say that AI can do our jobs, then let AI do our jobs and let us chill. (Pretty naive take I think)
Oh I definitely agree that the ethics involved are problematic, no question. And I also agree with the premise that we need strong unions for our own protection against that predatory behavior!
But working for the man is, in fact, optional. You can start your own business, be a gig worker, or just be an under-the table helping hand for cash. Having done those things myself, though, has taught me they are often feast or famine arrangements… so in the end I too am working for the man, simply because it’s steady pay.
Edit to add that AI is obviously an unknown factor in this equation. It’s good at its niche tasks but terrible at others, and if you want one that actually has all the capabilities of a regular worker, it’s going to be expensive. Several companies are just finding out after they fucked around. I wouldn’t count us out yet.
what is under-the table helping hand? Where I live though, we do not have individualistic values so families and society will consider it a shame if you are not working a high paying corporate job (mostly engineers), freelancer (either trading or coding or graphic designing or video editing), government job. Business is very rare and mostly it is generational. I personally think I will take a mediocre job after I graduate and once I become free (when my parents will die and my sis will be married or I don’t know if she will get financial independent), I will be a poor or maybe will try to do “that thing” with my life.
It’s doing things like handywork around other people’s houses, babysitting, errand-running, walking dogs, driving people to appointments, all paid in cash at the time of service. It’s hard to make that work steady enough to live on, but it can be done!
The funny part is how romantic it seems…all the free time you’ll have, right? Then when you start you realize that every other breathing moment is you trying to find more of that work to do because you need more money.
And sure, culture is a thing that is just as crushing as your boss. We all answer to someone, eventually.
I was corrected on that. Hunter-gatherers apparently had more leisure time.
There is a difference between doing what is necessary to live and performing nonsense jobs and constant microtasks. We don’t have employment, we have an unnecessary and forced means of constant torture and forced compliance with ridiculous norms. I hate every job I’ve ever had. It’s not because I’m lazy, it’s because it is forced, invisible prison bullshit and I want to be free.