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[–] 7 points 1 year ago (11 children)

Wanting a job for income and wanting to work are very different indeed but your point stands.

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  • [–] 20 points 1 year ago* (3 children)

    I believe most people want to contribute, but our society isn’t set up to align individual interest and aptitude with need.

    If we’re asking the majority of people to grind their own bones into dust doing something they hate for a pittance, that’s a large part of the problem. Some people love cleaning (like my sister), others love woodworking or cooking or streaming. But we’re forcing square pegs into round holes because we give no thought whatsoever to how people’s skills, aptitude, and interest might align with society’s needs, then we’re shocked pikachu when most are unhappy and thus unproductive.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Work in the context I meant was definitely the type that results from the current hierarchy resulting in the categorical failure you're pointing out.

    Contributing to someone you meet and relate face to face to feels good. Contributing to the concept of company or the "stakeholder" not so good.

    Personally i like to do a little of everything but forced myself to learn a specialty to earn a livable wage.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    In that case, I guess I agree with him that most people don’t want to ‘work’. Wanting to be a wage slave would be bonkers. Most people want to contribute meaningfully to society and don’t want to starve, but that’s not what ‘work’ means.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago*

    Right, it should just mean paid labor, but the people complaining about this would prefer it unpaid.

    I'd prefer pay to be unnecessary and the labor voluntary. At least I think that's a good ideal to work towards.

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  • [+] 9 points 1 year ago (6 children)
  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago

    Preach!

    I used to be able to do math problems and get paid well to do them. It wasn't ever "fun" or particularly rewarding but I could do it and not be completely exhausted or in pain at the end of the day.

    Now my pay is cut and I've been doing brain-rot marketing for months thanks to trump's cuts. My brain fog is so bad and motivation so low that the email that used to take me 30 seconds takes at least 20 minutes if not an hour these days. It's just meaningless and I feel like I'm working at a telemarketing call center for a company that doesn't sell anything. It's even hard to apply for new jobs. I don't know how the fuck I'm sober especially now of all times...

    Just luvky I managed to get a couple promising interviews lined up, have some friends, and relatively low expenses.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Depends on your definition of work. I don't think we should let ourselves be convinced that work can only be selling your energy, your time and your skills to a company that will pay you as little as it can get away with. If you have creative hobbies, practice some craft on your free time or help other people free of charge, that's still work: you're creating something of value for others and/or for society. It just doesn't feel like it because it's something you actually want to do instead of being forced to do.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

    ‘Do something you love and you’ll never work a day in your life’.

    I’ll bet there are things you love to do that would have value to others in society, even if you wouldn’t consider that a ‘job’ or ‘work’.

    That’s kind of my point. If our society weren’t so broken, you could contribute without having to do what we currently consider ‘work’.

    e : this sounded wrong, sorry. I meant if we could let go of capitalism, this is how things should work. We can’t have nice things, though.

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  • [+] 8 points 1 year ago (1 child)
  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago*

    Right, but you’re still assuming a capitalist society. Without that cutthroat marketplace and the need to compete, it wouldn’t necessarily be like that.

    It’s really hard to imagine, I know – and especially because I get it, I have a very niche hobby (period corset making and couture tailoring) that I could potentially make a lot of money doing but when I tried, it sucked all the enjoyment out of it to the point I had to stop for a few years.

    I’m talking about doing what you’re good at without the backdrop of a capitalist system that sucks you for every drop of blood you have.

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