 |
We expect a job to serve some purpose or have some meaning and are deeply demoralized if we find it does not.
|
195 |
 |
…not only is the social value of work usually in inverse proportion to its economic value (the more one’s work benefits others, the less one is likely to be paid for it), but many people have come to accept this situation as morally right…
|
196 |
 |
If you’re defrauding others of their wealth… you’re really stealing the real, productive work that went into creating that wealth.
|
199 |
 |
…saying all value comes from work is obviously not the same thing as saying that all work produces value.
|
199 |
 |
There seems to be a broad consensus not so much even that work is good but that not working is very bad; that anyone who is not slaving away harder than he’d like at something he doesn’t especially enjoy is a bad person…
|
215 |
 |
How have so many humans reached the point where they accept that even miserable, unnecessary work is actually morally superior to no work at all?
|
220 |
 |
…men see themselves as creating the world from their minds and brawn, and see that as the essence of ‘work,’ leaving to women most of the actual labor of tidying and maintaining things to make this illusion possible.
|
222 |
 |
…paradoxically, people regularly report that work is what gives the ultimate meaning to their lives, and that unemployment has devastating psychological effects.
|
241 |
 |
To be denied work is to be denied far more than the things that one can buy; it is to be denied the ability to define and respect one’s self.
|
241 |
 |
Workers… gain feelings of dignity and self-worth because they hate their jobs.
|
242 |
