I’m a big ol’ hippie but one sticking point I always have with my friends is that to have upward mobility there must also be the chance for downward mobility. There can be no success without a chance for failure. And I don’t mean this in a zero-sum sort of way.
Ideally every person would be able to invest in themselves and their community to the fullest extent. Teach themselves and others new skills, start their own business, sell themselves and their talents to others, and create a robust ecosystem of success and opportunity at scales ranging from the individual to the mega-corporation. I dream of a culture (both interpersonal and governmental) that strives for such an ideal.
In practice this does not happen though because it is a lot of work, not all people are able, not all people are willing, not all people are as open, sinscere, and imaginative, “the system” is not really favorable to being so self-starting, and the reality is that most available jobs are awful and it is very hard to have such a clear and vivid imagining of one’s own future when bogged down by a series of dead-end line cook jobs.
When I see things like the anti-work meme/movement I get where it’s coming from, but I also wonder what such a person would do once their goal of anti-work is achieved.
Ideally every person would be able to invest in themselves and their community to the fullest extent. Teach themselves and others new skills, start their own business, sell themselves and their talents to others, and create a robust ecosystem of success and opportunity at scales ranging from the individual to the mega-corporation. I dream of a culture (both interpersonal and governmental) that strives for such an ideal.
In practice this does not happen though because it is a lot of work, not all people are able, not all people are willing, not all people are as open, sinscere, and imaginative, “the system” is not really favorable to being so self-starting, and the reality is that most available jobs are awful and it is very hard to have such a clear and vivid imagining of one’s own future when bogged down by a series of dead-end line cook jobs.
When I see things like the anti-work meme/movement I get where it’s coming from, but I also wonder what such a person would do once their goal of anti-work is achieved.