2 ms·

> We've structured society as if the highest and best use of everyone's time is be a W-2 wage-earner. I'm beginning to think it's all a "Death of God" thing; w

> We've structured society as if the highest and best use of everyone's time is be a W-2 wage-earner. I'm beginning to think it's all a "Death of God" thing; we still haven't found a non-religious meaning for existence so we just focus on getting the high score. I certainly feel it, and I think many others do too though they might not fully understand the feeling. It looks like $56K is for a full-time nanny, so presumably there is more scale to be had at a daycare where it isn't one-to-one. I think the other issue is that leaving the workforce for years on end is very hard on a woman's career, so they may consider it worth it to pay the exorbitant costs for a few years if it means that they can maintain their employment. I'm long past thinking that any of this will change in a way that meaningfully improves peoples'/family's circumstances; as we can probably agree, the financeliazation of everything just seems like an accepted aspect of American life (though I'm not a fan).

krapp 3y ago
>I'm beginning to think it's all a "Death of God" thing; we still haven't found a non-religious meaning for existence so we just focus on getting the high score. Actually, it's the opposite - this relentless capitalist grind peculiar to American society has its origins in the Protestant work ethic - the belief that capitalism is a divine expression of God's will, that physical labor is the religious meaning of existence (at least for the working class) and that poverty and wealth are the result of moral vice or virtue, respectively. It's the same perverse intersection of Christianity and Capitalism that created prosperity theology. And the fear and hatred of government interventionism often derided as "godless socialism" which prevents the US from installing any real social safety nets or nationalized healthcare, out of the belief that suffering is inherently noble and the poor are inherently lazy is also rooted in the same religious belief.

krapp 3y ago

>I'm beginning to think it's all a "Death of God" thing; we still haven't found a non-religious meaning for existence so we just focus on getting the high score. Actually, it's the opposite - this relentless capitalist grind peculiar to American society has its origins in the Protestant work ethic - the belief that capitalism is a divine expression of God's will, that physical labor is the religious meaning of existence (at least for the working class) and that poverty and wealth are the result of moral vice or virtue, respectively. It's the same perverse intersection of Christianity and Capitalism that created prosperity theology. And the fear and hatred of government interventionism often derided as "godless socialism" which prevents the US from installing any real social safety nets or nationalized healthcare, out of the belief that suffering is inherently noble and the poor are inherently lazy is also rooted in the same religious belief.