Chapter 1: Why do we have to work? (Intro)

[FamineIsAwesome]

I wonder why the fuck I have to break my back as a stock worker for stupid asshole cocksucking dick lickers, when Paris Hilton is praised for nothing. Fuck this world, I'll happily rob a bank with a big fucking smile on my face.

[ToddAllenGates2]

@FamineIsAwesome

Sorry 'bout the delayed response.

> I wonder why the fuck I have to break my back

Because most entry-level jobs suck! Mine was as a NYC bike messenger, where I constantly risked death for $2 per drop-off. > Paris Hilton is praised for nothing

I agree that "supply & demand" has a lot of bizarre consequences--like models (who contribute nothing) making more than teachers (who create the foundation for our future). But "command economies" have disadvantages too (e.g. famine).

[oooshitman9]

your life ended at 25, you were reborn and killed again at 26...

[darkelf1000]

what i wondered when i was younger is WHY, just becasue we are born into a world where things like food and shelter and clothes etc are paid for that we have to be like others and work for money, we had not choice about being born into this type of world.why cant things be free?.........we are here for such a short amount of time that working is a big chunk of our lifetime, why cant we do what we want to do and still be provided for.

[ToddAllenGates2]

@darkelf1000

> just because we are born into a world where things like food and shelter and clothes etc [have to be] paid for ...why cant things be free?

Even back in the hunting & gathering days when they were "free," they still required labor ... the rest of this video series explains the transition from the labor of hunting & gathering vs. the labor of agriculture vs. the labor of the industrial age vs. the labor required in the Info Age ... and how each stage has its pros & cons.

[BigTeamButch]

This is funny. I'm 20 now. From age 14 I thought I wanted to be a musician. The next Bruce Springsteen, in fact. Well after some soul searching (and 6 years) later my musical dreams have been striped to almost nothing and I'm left with this same question: Why do I have to work? I just want to play video games and watch movies all day. Maybe play the piano or write a song once or twice. So obviously this video grabbed me by the throat. I'll keep watching. Let's hope it's destiny that I'm here!

[ToddAllenGates2]

@BigTeamButch

> Why do I have to work? ... this video grabbed me by the throat. I'll keep watching.

Hi BigTeamButch,

Sorry about the delayed response ... anyway, yes, I had similar thoughts when I realized in my late 20s that a music career wasn't the right choice for me, and I had to figure out something else. My search for answers led me to write my "Hunting, Gathering, & Videogames" book (the book that this video series is based on)--hope my explanation answers some of your questions!

[raggedmoorlander]

There was a time when only men worked. Then women doubled the workforce.  Did everyone then work half a day only? No. Again, the promise of new technology was that we would work fewer hours - perhaps only a few per week. It didn-t happen. Instead, we work longer and harder. Why? Is it we trade increased leisure time for more goods? No. For while the GDP goes up, living standards paradoxically go down. Puzzling though this is, the question is never discussed.

[ToddAllenGates]

@raggedmoorlander

> the promise of new technology was that we would work fewer hours

I touch upon this in my video series "Chapter 4: Emperors & Emptiness" (it's on this ToddAllenGates2 channel, not my ToddAllenGates channel). It discusses how technology can make us richer and emptier at the same time.

[raggedmoorlander]

@ToddAllenGates I've just watched the video you refer me to. I don't really disagree with any of it, quite the contrary, but the question I raise is quite distinct from, and separate to, the issues you discuss. This question remains unanswered.

[ToddAllenGates]

@raggedmoorlander

My feeling was that my "Chapter 4" series touched on this in the sense that technology brings about lots of goods and services, and in this kind of world, our expectations shift, and we want MORE and MORE. We can't be satisfied with a CD player that holds 12 songs when our neighbor's iPod holds 12,000 songs.

That being said, there is a "voluntary simplicity" movement—google the term and you'll get 49,000 hits. The aims include less possessions, less stress, and less work.

[raggedmoorlander]

@ToddAllenGates Yes, but the weird thing is that while the GDP has been going up, the standard of living of most people has actually been going down for some time (meaning decades). More and more labour is going into moving money around, cleaning up the effects of pollution, advertising, treating ever-increasing incidents of the various cancers and other illnesses, competitive selling and goodness knows what else, all of which are included in GDP but none of which improve standard of living.

[ToddAllenGates]

@raggedmoorlander

> More and more labour is going into moving money around, cleaning up the effects of pollution, ... competitive selling and goodness knows what else

Good points! As for competitive selling, it almost seems to ensure that technology will never be a time-saver ... because as products get more complex, the less able we are to do self-maintenance ... and as products strive to outdo each other, older versions quickly become obsolete and "unsupported."

[raggedmoorlander]

@ToddAllenGates By 'competitive selling' I meant, of course, the sales techniques that go into trying to persuade us to buy this product rather than that, Coke rather than Pepsi / Pepsi rather than Coke. But yes, the built-in obsolescence of products (where once we would have mended a hole in a bucket) and the consumer mythology we imbibe which has it that the new model is always to be desired over the old, and we should be ashamed to be seen with the old, are hugely wasteful of human labour.

[ToddAllenGates]

@raggedmoorlander

> By 'competitive selling' I meant, of course, the sales techniques that go into trying to persuade us to buy this product rather than that, Coke rather than Pepsi / Pepsi rather than Coke

I try my best to educate my kids on this, so they don't fall prey to Madison Ave marketing tricks -- it's much easier said than done! Pop culture is one powerful beast.

[wolffenhaus]

I work fine I'm not broken. I work as a human being, a lover of life. Pay me.

[SuperiorSavior]

I do think economics makes itself overly complicated. Money is only good insofar as it leads to happiness. A better economy doesn't lead to happiness; once people have the money for their basic needs, happiness is based on equality. I don't know why people take their identiy from their career, but it's better than taking your identity from things your born with & unchosen. The world would be far better if no one had to work; only when no one has to work can an equal system develop, i think.

[ToddAllenGates]

> I do think economics makes itself overly complicated.

The complexity of it all --- that we get our food, clothes, shelter & iPods via such a roundabout route --- is the reason I felt compelled to write a book about it.

Before I could explain to my kids why they had to work, I had to figure it out for myself!

[OzSalvi92]

dude i am a teenager NOW and i dont fucking get why people commit to working their entire lives, its just plain stupid. the moment you finish school your forced to work to get money for a life you dont have BECAUSE your working all the time. and by the time you've retired, your too old to enjoy life to the fullest. amen to you, thank you for posting this

[ToddGates]

1 of 4:

Hi OzSalvi92,

> thank you for posting this

You're welcome!

> i dont fucking get why people commit to working their entire lives, its just plain stupid.

In this channel's series of videos on my "Hunting, Gathering, & Videogames" book, I try to tease out what I feel is and what is not misguided about our modern mindset on work:

[ToddGates]

2 of 4:

What's NOT misguided: the notion that we all (except for the independently wealthy) *have* to work for our survival. Our labor is certainly more roundabout than that of the hunter & gather, but the bottom line is that our food, clothes, & shelter don't appear by themselves---so we either have to:

[ToddGates]

3 of 4:

(a) catch or grow our food, make our clothes, and build our shelter, or

(b) make a product and trade for our food, clothes, & shelter with specialists, or

(c) contribute to making *part* of a product or service so we can trade (via currency) with the products & services from those in the food, clothes, & shelter industries.

[ToddGates]

4 of 4:

What IS misguided: that the specialized labor we perform for survival necessarily represents our "life's meaning": that it's our sole measure of success, and represents our very identity.

I discuss this in more detail in my video series on Chapter 6 (titled " Pursuit of happiness---re: work, wealth & success)."