 Hi, Professor Gerald Friedman, Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts. And I'd like today to talk about the fundamental question, must work suck? And the answer is, under capitalism, unfortunately, yes. And this comes in several ways. Now let's begin with the capitalist labor process. The basic organization of production to capitalism is you go to work for a certain length of time, and while you're at work, you do what you're told. Some of you have seen the comic strip, Dilbert. There's an excellent illustration of how this process happens. Many of you have gone to work yourself, and you know about it. So how does this work? You have intelligent human beings, sentient, who are supposed to act like robots. How do you get them to do that, and how do you get them to show up the next day? First thing to note is people do not like being told what to do. It may be a fundamental human drive that people like to make choices for themselves. They like to be in control of themselves. They feel dignified when they're making their own choices and undignified and disrespected when somebody's telling them what to do. Of course, I tell you what to do, I'm saying I know better than you. And you are not as good as me. Ask yourself, how do you feel about that? Would you like to go around feeling that you're not as good as somebody else? That you should just do what they tell you to do? So how do we get people to do it? Through fear. Fear that the alternative to following orders is worse. The alternative to following orders is to go hungry, lose your mortgage, not be able to feed your children. So with the threat of unemployment, people go to work, they do what they're told, and they have to rationalize it. Because however unpleasant it may be, you have to live with it so you tell yourself, well, okay, following orders, being part of the capitalist hierarchy is right, I guess, because I guess I'm not as good as the boss. The boss is smarter than me. The boss knows better. So I should do what he says or she says. So we develop a schizophrenic life under capitalist work. At home, at the bowling alley, in the voting booth, we're citizens, we're free, we're important, we're valued. At work, we're idiots. We develop a side of ourselves that accepts its position as subservient, as inferior. And that's what work teaches. And that's pretty much essential for a capitalist society because the boss and the capitalism has to find a way to get you to follow orders. The way they do it is by teaching you that you should follow orders because you're not as good as them. So does work have to suck? I'm afraid the answer is yes, under capitalism. Throughout the rest of the course, we'll be talking about alternatives where maybe work won't have to suck and what that would be like. But till then, I hope that you have a nice day and don't have to go to work. Have a good one. Bye-bye.