People really like to talk about how everyone needs to be working more, and that no one wants to do anything, despite the rise in productivity. For decades, people have been telling the younger generations that we have nothing to offer, that we all suffer from chronic stupidity, and that the world would be worse in our hands. Those who think I am exaggerating can do a search on the interwebs for videos and social media posts criticizing the productivity of all the younger generations. It is as if there should never be a limit to how much work one can produce, and even if there is, that limit should be ignored.
What is also interesting is that all of those wealthy parents with rental properties and other passive income are starting to get cut off from their children. No, not everyone, but there is a pointed rash of people getting tired of elders expecting so much productivity that all the relationships suffer. Too many older people are unwilling to accept that the reason they became wealthy was because of a unique moment in time when there were enough people to create excessive demands, and enough resources to accommodate those demands. People literally got rich because there were a bunch of people and enough disposable income for wealth to be spread around the populace–as much as it ever would be.
At this point in time, there is neither resources nor enough people to fill the demands of people stuck in an era when “everybody worked.” Technology means that everything can be done faster, but when tasks are done, there is nothing else to be done. Office politics became toxic because instead of reducing the amount of time people have to work, insecure management kept everyone under their control by demanding 40-hour work weeks. Some people with too much time create chaos, rather than find ways to amuse themselves. Rather than paying people more and working less, “leadership” has painted itself into a corner because most jobs take less time, but everything costs more, so people are stuck being at work rather than building communities and personal relationships.
Last year, two of my coworkers died while at work. It was during the tax season when there was a lot of overtime, and rather than pace themselves, people were looking to enjoy the opportunity for more income. Just like many people, I was working 12-hour days, 5 days a week, but I put a limit of not working on the weekends because I had worked myself sick in 2023. There were plenty of people who were working 12-hour days, 7 days a week, using the excuse that there was so little overtime during the previous year. However, one evening–I worked the night shift–my section was informed that someone had died while at work. Three months later, the same thing happened again.
I did not personally know the people who died, but I thought about how so many people worked a regular job, then came to work the night shift–some of them full-time. While they definitely used the money, they were burning themselves out, and they knew it. To have more than one person work themselves to death for money was a wake up call, and their deaths made my decision to leave that much easier. Later, the mainstream media would mention a worker who had been found dead at work only after four days. Imagine being a coworker so callous that it took four days to discover someone working next to you was dead.
Productivity of the past is simply not possible, and as long as society keeps trying to force it on people, collapse will be more violent than necessary. There has been no need to work hard for a long time, which is why very few people want to do it. If we all had sufficient time to develop our own personalities, perhaps we would be better at doing the things that matter, instead of screaming at everyone to get to work. After all, without the context of this abysmal, heartless society, work would be irrelevant.
Chasing A Dying Empire 