[fnordpiglet]

Or, they don’t know what they value yet and money is a way to measure value without understanding. It opens opportunities to discover your values and affords housing, education for children, retirement, and optionality later in life. Some folks, like myself, found what I value aligns with pretty good pay and I appreciate it while not particularly valuing it.

[JohnFen]

I suspect (hope) that by the time a person is old enough to have a job, they have developed some sort of value system and are at least roughly aware of what that value system is.

[fnordpiglet]

I mentor a ton of people and have for decades at various stages of their life and career. People

A) rarely have a clear view of their values insofar as it aligns to what they do for a career or job. Maybe about X social issue, but rarely about themselves.

B) careers and corporate brainwashing greatly distorts peoples internal view of themselves and their relationship to their work

C) values change continuously throughout life. The people who seem to hold most tightly to a narrow range over a long time tend to be the least introspected.

[walleeee]

I think it's all too common to absorb a value system from social context with little examination. Validation is more comfortable than doubt, peer pressure is real and habit/convention carry inertia. It took me 2 years in a job I knew I couldn't justify to finally work up the courage and conviction to leave. Moreover the cycle can take place multiple times in life as beliefs are updated and values refined.

[zorrolovsky]

Yes, and if you come from a place of true scarcity (country with 30% unemployment, and zero opportunities in your field) it's easy to ditch all your values for that one job that opens the door for you. Only when you're somehow established you can start thinking about values.