It depends on where and how far back you want to look. A lot of Americans worked in morally repellent conditions in factories for little pay in the late 1800s a

It depends on where and how far back you want to look. A lot of Americans worked in morally repellent conditions in factories for little pay in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Earlier, though, I suspect being a wainwright or blacksmith or bookbinder - crafting a final good and seeing directly how it benefited your customer - was more satisfying than working as a corporate lawyer or a university administrator. The Industrial Revolution allowed us to solve more and more desires. All of our basic ones are satisfied (in the West, for 99% of people). But the treadmill of desire continues, so jobs were created to satisfy those, too. And they feel fake because those jobs are increasingly divorced from central, "real" human desires.