[euroderf]

Player Piano is great. The ending is kind of upbeat and hopeful: If there's no "work" as such, there's always "hobbies" (or whatever you could call it) - ways to feel AND BE useful and to better the world and the lives of others.

[red-iron-pine]

Fear and Loathing in the Magic Kingdom touches on this. In a post-scarcity economy, what do you do? Work and hobbies kinda blend.

[euroderf]

> Work and hobbies kinda blend.

That's the ruling economic ideology - that it's the employee's responsibility to find fun and self-actualisation in the workplace. "Nice work if you can find it."

[zebomon]

I think you're thinking of Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, by Cory Doctorow.