3 ms·

Nobody ever "wanted" to work, and that's been true since at least the agricultural revolution. People work because they have to, and stop the minute they don't.

by bambax 4y ago

Nobody ever "wanted" to work, and that's been true since at least the agricultural revolution. People work because they have to, and stop the minute they don't. Today still, in some parts of the world, lower echelons of society are called "the working class", because needing to work is very effective at discriminating between haves and have nots. If work was somehow desirable in and of itself, it would be the other way around: the working class would describe those lucky enough to have a job. People complaining that "nobody wants to work anymore" are usually people not working themselves, who fail to understand that in order to find someone willing to do your own laundry, you have to pay them a fair wage.

swayvil 4y ago
The colonial landowners had a similar problem. Pay the locals a fair wage and they'd quit after only a few hours, having made cash sufficient for their needs. The landowners weren't getting enough work out of them. The solution : pay the locals less. Thus they need to work more. Is that how it goes in USA?
- TrapLord_Rhodo 4y ago
  >Is that how it goes in USA? C'mon....We are more sophisticated now. We constrain housing supply and ensure high inflation.
- gruez 4y ago
  > The colonial landowners had a similar problem. >Pay the locals a fair wage and they'd quit after only a few hours, having made cash sufficient for their needs. The landowners weren't getting enough work out of them. >The solution : pay the locals less. Thus they need to work more. It's a nice allegory, but it doesn't make any sense. You're basically claiming that the colonial landowners were so dumb that they were paying the natives well in excess of the market clearing wage? Seems unlikely to me. It's almost as unbelievable as saying that jeff bezos used to pay people $50k/day to clean his house, but the cleaners would stop coming in after the second day, so he paid the workers $100/day instead.
AnIdiotOnTheNet 4y ago
> Nobody ever "wanted" to work [...] Not even remotely true. I can't tell you how many times I've heard people say things like "retire? but then what would I do?", or how many people work like their job is the only thing in their lives that means anything. I'm talking about here, on HN, the site you are currently reading.
- bambax 4y ago
  > people say things like "retire? but then what would I do?" And what happens when they do retire? Do they keep going to work? Or maybe they can't retire because they don't have retirement benefits. But when people live in a country with proper retirement benefits, they actually do retire, and somehow they manage to find meaning elsewhere.
  - AnIdiotOnTheNet 4y ago
    Yeah, I personally find it pretty sad, but what can you do. Point is, while I don't want to work, "no one wants to work" is clearly false.
squintychino 4y ago
I think the main difference is working because you HAVE to vs working because you WANT to. Very few people work in something they truly enjoy. And so logically they try to do as little as possible.

by bambax 4y ago

swayvil 4y ago

The colonial landowners had a similar problem. Pay the locals a fair wage and they'd quit after only a few hours, having made cash sufficient for their needs. The landowners weren't getting enough work out of them. The solution : pay the locals less. Thus they need to work more. Is that how it goes in USA?

TrapLord_Rhodo 4y ago
>Is that how it goes in USA? C'mon....We are more sophisticated now. We constrain housing supply and ensure high inflation.
gruez 4y ago
> The colonial landowners had a similar problem. >Pay the locals a fair wage and they'd quit after only a few hours, having made cash sufficient for their needs. The landowners weren't getting enough work out of them. >The solution : pay the locals less. Thus they need to work more. It's a nice allegory, but it doesn't make any sense. You're basically claiming that the colonial landowners were so dumb that they were paying the natives well in excess of the market clearing wage? Seems unlikely to me. It's almost as unbelievable as saying that jeff bezos used to pay people $50k/day to clean his house, but the cleaners would stop coming in after the second day, so he paid the workers $100/day instead.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 4y ago

> Nobody ever "wanted" to work [...] Not even remotely true. I can't tell you how many times I've heard people say things like "retire? but then what would I do?", or how many people work like their job is the only thing in their lives that means anything. I'm talking about here, on HN, the site you are currently reading.

bambax 4y ago
> people say things like "retire? but then what would I do?" And what happens when they do retire? Do they keep going to work? Or maybe they can't retire because they don't have retirement benefits. But when people live in a country with proper retirement benefits, they actually do retire, and somehow they manage to find meaning elsewhere.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 4y ago
  Yeah, I personally find it pretty sad, but what can you do. Point is, while I don't want to work, "no one wants to work" is clearly false.

squintychino 4y ago

I think the main difference is working because you HAVE to vs working because you WANT to. Very few people work in something they truly enjoy. And so logically they try to do as little as possible.