Because at its core a “job” is just doing something useful for other people, validated by the incurrence of a large societal cost (your salary). Humans like to

Because at its core a “job” is just doing something useful for other people, validated by the incurrence of a large societal cost (your salary). Humans like to feel useful AND validated. If you remove either we generally become more unhappy. If you remove both it becomes a real problem. Hence why unemployed people (both of the working class and “too rich to work due my trust fund” variety) have much higher rates of depression. This even extends to people who have jobs, but that feel their jobs are not actually useful (re: big tech workers arbitraging the inefficiency of large organizations to get paid doing very little). They have the validation of the societal cost (the salary) but deep down they know it’s an inefficient mistake. Intrinsic motivation beyond our base instincts is a myth. Everything you do as a human is in pursuit of external validation, hence why we are social creatures. It’s why you’ve bothered to take the time out of your day to type these words into a box. Humans finding new useful things to do for other people (jobs) is the engine behind everything good in modern society. So no, it’s not a bad thing.