[gfxgirl]

> Work is the source of nearly all the misery in the world

This is utter nonsense. Many people enjoy their work immensely. To take a HN hero I'll bet Steve Jobs enjoyed changing the world via his work and through that loved his work. I'll be Steven Spielberg loves (loved?) his work.

Further, short of AGI, there will always be work. Let's imagine no one had to work anymore. What would we all do? We certainly wouldn't make TV shows and movies because those require work to make but we just said we live in a world without work. We could all have twitch channels talking to our fans but their'd be no games to play on them because making a game is seriously hard work. Maybe some hobbiest would make some 1 person indie game and not call it work but there are few TV shows, movies, and games that don't require a small army of people, most of which have to do "work".

Not sure how we're going to take the work out of nursing, cooking, cleaning (clothing, buildings, kitchens, hospitals, parks, streets) etc...

Replicators, if they ever exist, won't remove the need for work. Even in Star Trek (post scarcity) what do think the 1000+ crew members each ship do? They do work.

[musicale]

> Many people enjoy their work immensely.

According to CNBC, 85% of US workers were happy with their jobs:

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/01/85percent-of-us-workers-are-...

And according to the Washington Post, 13% of people (surveyed from 140 countries) were "engaged" in their jobs:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/on-leadership/wp/2013/10...

[DaiPlusPlus]

> To take a HN hero I'll bet Steve Jobs enjoyed changing the world via his work and through that loved his work

“Hero”?

No.

A notable and inspirational figure with many positive and admirable attributes? Yes.

But a hero? No. Where is the heroism in being the CEO of Apple?

[sapientiae3]

It’s strange that people seem to think that work is always a burden - try do nothing for a few weeks and see how that affects your mood.

Work, while has its difficult moments, and parts that can be very tedious, is one of the greatest things we can do.

No beer ever tasted better than one after a solid day’s work, and being part of the advancement of civilisation, even in some small way is pretty much the pinnacle of human achievement.

If you hate working, I’d say change your attitude or change your job.

[ritchiea]

The comment above yours cites Steven Spielberg and Steve Jobs. Clearly the vast majority of us don’t have the autonomy at work or the compensation that those Steves have/had. There are many types of work that people enjoy and not just in prestigious fields. The problems with work arise out of issues such as:

- Businesses being incentivized to pay as little as possible

- Workers not being treated with dignity, not allowed enough time to recover from being ill or take vacation to mentally recharge

- Workers being pressured to maximize for output rather than their own experience at work

Of course work can be great for some people, but it’s intentional blindness to look around and tell the worlds workers most of us are in a position where work is fulfilling rather than a demanding stressor that asks more of us while corporate entities attempt to cut pay and benefits. You can call it overemphasis on short term thinking or a systematic failure of capitalism. But work is demanding and often even unforgiving to most workers.

[mkl]

> Even in Star Trek (post scarcity) what do think the 1000+ crew members each ship do? They do work.

Star Trek is hardly a documentary. The characters work because that's what the writers want, to tell their stories. By contrast, in Iain M. Banks's post-scarcity Culture novels, work is not really a thing. Instead people have hobbies and interests, some people accomplish things by getting really into hobbies like spaceship building (but it would have been automated if they didn't), and a very few people choose to play important societal roles.

[jagged-chisel]

> > Work is the source of nearly all the misery in the world

> Many people enjoy their work immensely.

You didn't counter the statement. Even if work is the source of most misery, that says nothing about people who enjoy their work.

[hypersoar]

The crew of the Enterprise wants to be there. Not in a "I need food and shelter and this is a good way to get it" kind of way, but in the "I can do whatever I want and I choose this" kind of way.

Abolishing work means abolishing the false choice between a job and homelessness. People can still be paid to do things. Unpleasant work might need to pay better rather than depend on a desperate underclass. People will probably still clean toilets if you pay them enough, or maybe they will simply out of a sense of responsibility. What if we had the resources to provide for everyone's basic needs while paying people enough to keep things running, even when they have an actual choice? What if we have the resources, already?

You ask about artistic megaprojects. Well, what about them? Maybe billion-dollar movies don't get made. I think we'll do fine without them. Maybe AAA games aren't ground out by a machine of worker exploitation. They aren't worth it, anyway. No game could be. But I think it's crazy to think that you won't have people who want to organize into groups and create things. If everyone in the tech industry is given their basic needs for free, do you think everybody will go home? Or will some of them still do it for some extra money and because they find it rewarding? People who like their jobs like them for reasons beyond The need for money.

Today, the way we get farming, cooking, cleaning, manufacturing, etc., is primarily by exploitation. I think that our society should refuse to accept that that is inevitable. The idea that things only get done if you force people to do them lies at the corrupted heart of our economic system. We should reject it and build a just world, or we should die trying.