Spurred from this post about The Office where I saw some back-and-forth about potential occupation-shaming(?), like why are people getting heated over being able to work?
I understand there's mental health, physical disability, learning disability, or just general lack of opportunity for some people or situations, but shouldn't everyone's drive be to contribute to society as a byproduct of participating in it?
Yeah, capitalism is fucked up, but at the end of the day, shouldn't everyone be motivated to contribute something back to earn their keep? Or can we just say "fuck it" and get mad at people who shame us for choosing not to submit to the 9 to 5?
I mean this is a false premise - capitalism is horrible at motivating anyone to do anything other than exploit others for profit, and the vast majority of people "earning their keep" have it taken from them by someone who didn't do the labor. The future I want is one where people spend most of their time enjoying being humans - traveling, exploring, learning, creating art, making social connections - instead of toiling away for a capitalist to prove that they "deserve" to eat that night. We could eliminate entire industries of useless or redundant labor, and that would allow that populace to positively contribute to society in a way that they weren't able to before, with no loss in our productive capacity. So basically, "people unwilling to work" is only a crisis if you narrowly define "contribution to society" as the capitalist's definition. Socialism is liberating because hand wringing over who is or isn't a "burden" is pointless when we already have enough to give every person a comfortable life.