What If We Just...Stopped Working?

What If We Just...Stopped Working? – Second Thought

Ever think about how the average person is orders of magnitude more productive than workers of the past, and yet our work week hasn't gotten any shorter? What's the deal? In this week's episode we're looking at the idea of "work," and how it's been so thoroughly polluted by capitalism.

New video every Friday!

SOURCES
On work and post-work, generally

On meaningful work, specifically

On bullshit work, very specifically

On work and the very concept of energy, as specific as it gets

Iceland study

Burnout stats

Multiple job stats

1.5 - 3 hours stat & nonwork

Diminishing returns productivity

Meaningless jobs stats

Just a fantastic Forbes article

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About Second Thought:
Second Thought is a channel devoted to education and analysis of current events from a Leftist perspective. Welcome!

[artawhirler]

I'm a 66 year old retired American male....I spent my whole life working as little as possible, and my only regret looking back on it now is that I didn't work even less.

[heatherfeather]

"The longer you work, the less productive you are." PLEASE say that louder for all of the companies forcing mandatory overtime on staff.

[BestTeeth]

god, imagine a world where you could find your own purpose, instead of trying to motivate yourself to do things you want to do after youve slogged working away the time you werent able to, this video stirred something inside me and i dont know what it is

[eyesofthefox]

It's amazing how indigenous peoples survived hundreds of years without the concept of money, yet nearly every member of the society contributed to the betterment of their tribe without the pressure of monetary limits.

[okieness]

Isn't it kind of weird that technology advanced a lot and raised our work productivity a lot, but we still have 40-hour work week (or even more for some) that was won by workers fighting for it a century ago?

[lilgrannyari]

My dad retired in January 2020 from the company he worked at for over 40 years. He had a stressful job that required a lot of travel and days and nights away from home. He routinely worked more than 40 hours per week, and in his late 60s kept being told he needed to do more. At 70 he retired and his retirement by comparison has been bliss. He got time for his passions and where we could and when we could, we traveled. But he had a heart attack in December and died. Less than 3 years after retirement. Our society uses up good, hardworking people. If my dad had just one more day off each week, even just for the last 10 years of his job, would I still have a dad?

[WolfHagenSdW]

"Work will set you free!" As a German, I almost spit my coffee. <.<

[smallstudiodesign]

The lesson I learned early in life is watching my dad … worked locally until his retirement at 65 … then he suffered a massive stroke at 67 and rendered partially paralyzed and unable to speak. He died 3 1/2 yrs later after much suffering. It changed my attitude about work : doing what I love and where my passions are & making sure I have enough leisure time to explore, travel & try out new things.

[Sanorace]

We really need to decouple work from earning money. Raising a child is work. Cleaning your house is work. Going to get your car registered is work. You just don't get paid for it because those things don't directly make capitalists money. I want to work. I just can't survive without money, so I'm forced to do only certain kinds of work.

[JetScreamer_YT]

"My generation suffered, therefore you should!"
I'm sick of killing myself for Capitalism. The "loyalty" doesn't go both ways.

[derekfutrell]

The ease in which most jobs went virtual almost immediately during the pandemic screamed to me that most jobs are completely arbitrary and useless.

Someone making excel sheets, graphs and slides that were already sheets graphs and slides of someone else’s sheets graphs and slides

[MasterTSayge]

2005 - 2010 I was working at a 130k job. I was extremely stressful, working 50+ hours a week, no life, not happy, and I was going no where!
I quit in 2011.

I moved to St Thomas and became a part time bartender, . Granted I'm not making much money but IM TOTALLY STRESS FREE A HAPPY. Most importantly, I no longer need meds for my Anxiety is gone.

The only regret is I wish I did this when I was 20 instead of 35. 😊

[jodystrickland]

Just imagine how much healthier and happier we would all be if we could work 25hours a week and still be able to live comfortably with a fair wage.. too bad it’ll never happen tho

[spencerlukay]

The answer is pretty obvious and I feel has been for a while now. The issue is that the owners of the world don’t want the population to have more time to themselves. That would mean more freedom, self-autonomy, and more energy to think for ourselves, assess our situation and find solutions to better it.

[jameskennedy]

As someone who was never in a union when I was in the field, but am staff at a company with union workers, I seriously see the benefit of unions. Wish they were growing and not shrinking.

[eyesofthefox]

I think that most people, myself included, are afraid to work for themselves, because there's no initial guarantee that you'll be successful. What we don't realize is that if we stay consistent, we can and will grow over time. It's that over time bit that we get hung up on. A job working for someone else, we know that if we do the bullshit we'll get paid, versus doing work you enjoy for yourself, that doesn't immediately pay.

[juniperminda]

I’m a manager in Japan and after hearing about the 4 day work week, I got all my workers down to 30 hours per week and soon I’ll work with HQ to get them down to 4 days ☺️
If you push hard enough, it can work. They seem much happier than before and things still run smoothly. Good luck, America ✊🏽

[tagg]

I have a friend that when I met him I asked him what he does. He started saying woodworking, writing, cooking, spending time with his kids, etc... I said oh I meant for work. And he said oh, do you mean what do I sell myself as labor for? Always stuck with me.

[milkyvanlife]

I'm hard working and not lazy at all. But at 40 now and having worked solid for 25 years I'm no where better off. In fact I was more skint now than 15 years ago. So finally I woke up, I moved into my van. Got a part time job and now I feel much better in myself and no money worries and actually enjoying my life now. My depression has gone and I now know I can live much better with a simple life and my confidence with myself is massive.

[dmbsustainability]

When I was a child in the 1970s people were wondering what we'd all do with our increased leisure time created by automation. I'm still wondering where that leisure time is...