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by avz 3662 days ago
> if having a job wasn't a social norm enforced by threat of starvation, homelessness, bad quality of life, and loss of healthcare [...]

If people didn't do their jobs there wouldn't be any food, homes or healthcare. People work not because of a social norm, but in order to solve each other's problems.

Note how ubiquitous work is: people engage in it across all cultures with otherwise highly diverse social norms.
1 comments
sevenless 3662 days ago
Do you produce food, build houses or treat sick people? Most people don't. Productivity has soared in farming and construction. Healthcare, not so much, but that might be next.

The nature of work is really diverse across cultures. Hunter-gatherers hardly do any. Rural cultures have most people farming. I think about 1% of people in the USA are farmers.

Most jobs in the West are, well, bullshit jobs. Busy work. We do them despite the fact we could feed and house everyone with perhaps 9/10 people not working. It's merely a social expectation that we should all work, and a preference, not a necessity, to punish those who don't.

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avz 3662 days ago
> Productivity has soared in farming and construction. [...] It's merely a social expectation that we should all work, and a preference, not a necessity, to punish those who don't.

This seems like grasping entitlement. High productivity in farming or construction does not automatically give you the right to demand that they hand over their food or houses. Their preference to share their output in an exchange is not a punishment - it's reciprocity. If it wasn't for the prospect of exchange, why would anyone ever make more of anything than strictly what they needed? They could be hanging out with friends and family instead of catering to the needs of strangers.

> We do them despite the fact we could feed and house everyone with perhaps 9/10 people not working.

There is plenty of other problems to solve like cancer, diseases, global warming, clean energy, access to space and unfortunately in many places still housing and food. Claiming that people no longer need to work is like saying that we have run out of problems to solve. That this is it. That this is the world we want.

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