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?
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.