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> If you are unemployed and looking unsuccessfully for work, you have no income reward and no work accomplishment reward. If you receive unemployment benefits o
by marcus_holmes 2y ago
> If you are unemployed and looking unsuccessfully for work, you have no income reward and no work accomplishment reward. If you receive unemployment benefits or UBI of some sort in that situation, it's more of a reminder that "you suck, you can't even find a job, everyone else has to support you" than anything rewarding.
So you're saying that you think the chronic long-term effects found in the study are not from having little money, but from the lack of rewards?
I mean, there's no data on that, so you could be right. We'd have to find a bunch of people who have little money but find their own rewards and see if they suffer the same consequences.
Possibly the "starving artist" folks - people whose motivation is their art but who earn no (or very little) money doing it. Anecdotally, the ones I've met veer wildly (almost daily) between euphoria and despair. But I think that's different from the symptoms the study is talking about.
- bumby 2y agoI think there are at least some studies that show one aspect of well-being is feeling like you are a valued member of your society. You can be a relatively poor grandparent who is valued by your contributions to your family, or a volunteer, or whatever. I think for many a job becomes a unconscious proxy. You could probably also study people who are paid well, but in jobs that society doesn't generally hold in high-esteem. My mind goes to attorneys who have enough well-being issues that the American Bar Association issued a task force on well-being. I would venture a similar issue is what causes some veterans to struggle when they return to civilian life. I guess what I'm trying to say is that a job is just a useful proxy for measuring how people feel they are contributing to society, but it's an imperfect one.