The sad truth about work (it doesn't need to be like this)

If you live until you're 82 years old, you get 984 months to use. During the majority of those months, you will be working, 5 days per week, 8 hours per day, or even more. Is this really necessary? Some argue that our generation should demand a better work-life balance, where working less could mean living more!

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During the last 200 years, we've experienced massive productivity gains. This enabled our grandparents' generations to radically improve their lives by earning more and working less. Why isn't our generation demanding the same?

In this video, I explore ideas that challenge our current notions of work. This video is to a large part based on ideas from the Swedish sociologist Roland Paulsen's books. If you like this video, I highly recommend his books, some of which are available in English.

The ideas explored in this video are usually used as a basis to discuss a universal basic income or a shorter work week. Maybe I will have that as a topic for a future video.

In this video:
00:00 My first job.
01:32 Productive productivity.
04:09 Who is getting all the value?
05:40 The curious service sector.
09:01 A pivotal moment in history.
10:25 Thank you!

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Who am I?

I’m Andres Acevedo, a lawyer who make short documentaries about law, economics and fairness for my own channel, The Market Exit. You can help me make videos for The Market Exit by becoming a Patreon. Or, if you live in Sweden, you can Swish me a donation on 123-333 34 65.

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★★★ You might also be interested in:

#greatresignation #antiwork #worklifebalance

Thanks for watching the video: Working Less Could Mean Living More: Our Generation Should Demand a Better Work-Life Balance

[sunnyquinn]

Ok, now I wanna see a movie called "I Was a Teenage Telemarketer". I'm pretty sure it could make the top 10 most terrifying horror movies of all time.

[bygnahzdivad]

I feel like I'm pretty late in subscribing to this channel, but thank you for starting this channel! IMO, it's one of the few channels that actually engage in real thought and exploration of new ideas. And as everyone else has pointed out, your content is criminally undervalued by YouTube.

[julianrichard]

You channel is criminally undervalued The quality of your content far exceeds your subscriber count. It may not happen today or tomorrow, but its inevitable that this channel will blow up eventually. Keep the videos coming!

[paulmcewen]

It's a strange thing I've noticed over the last 5 years specifically. I work as an electrician, I have worked building research ships, a robotic palletizing system, a hydrogen fuel cell production and testing plant, numerous control systems in hospitals, yet my perceived status and worth seems to be extremely low.
For example, I have met a few people who reset email passwords within a corporation and consider themselves "tech" workers, and this is considered much higher status and important to society.
I've just noticed how it has played out socially and in the dating market. It's super apparent.

[wednesdayadams]

As I biggest problem I consider the fact that we teach kids at school "if you wanna be rich/succesful, work hard". Like it's that simple. The rich make the poor believe that their misery and poverty is purely their fault (that they're being "lazy" for not working 60 hours a week, for being sick, have children, having disabilities and stress related fatigue syndromes etc). It's a perfect psychological weapon, because the poor then hate themselves for their situation and don't blame the rich for creating harmful work environment and work ethic that's almost impossible to manage.

[daviddeshazo]

I either wanna work less or I want the money I should be getting paid.
So messed up I grew up to get robbed.
Keep spreading awareness, we need to come together and fix this!

[onetoughbear]

So, here’s the thing: productivity's shot up like a rocket since the '70s, right? But guess what? Wealth distribution’s gone the opposite way—plummeted faster than my hopes for humanity. Good luck to the next generation! They’re really going to need it, aren’t they?

[omenworks]

You are missing one important point in your video. The government and big corporations work together to obtain more power and control, and for that, they need a society that is busy and divided. If enough people have time on their hands things would improve for sure, but also those people thanks to more time would start to look and reflect more on what governments are doing and spending our money on. They created hostile environments where people struggle all the time, housing problems, and money problems. If those things would go away and society felt more secure they would for sure start to look for improvements elsewhere, and that would be a headache for any government...

[deltalj]

We produce more and are way more efficient. But politics always say we need more workers. The greed is too much.

[cameliomack]

Sad story. I worked as an Engineering manager, and my teams built systems that supported "Mission Critical" satellite operations. At the start, I reported to experienced Engineers. When I retired 35 years later, I reported to all non-Engineers, who had never produced a product in their lives. They were trying to get me fired, and my area all but eliminated. Yes, they did not understand what "Mission Critical" meant. It was that bad...

[barcidstudios]

Why does it anger me so much that nobody or so few value their time? We live our whole lives in a fear that we won't be able to live lavishly after 65???

[PinkiePi]

If you look at the American economy, productivity has gone way up, while wages have not.
Ideally, automation and AI are supposed to move us toward a post-scarcity society. Instead, it is being used to increase wealth inequality, stifle freedom and creativity, and benefit the most selfish and greedy of our society.
We have all gone so crazy with the state of things that we make every effort to numb ourselves, distract ourselves, to cope with the absolute futility and hopelessness of the rat race.
Your content and the ideas you present are VERY much needed. Thank you.

[HoboGardenerBen]

People think they have no choice but are usually allowing cultural norms to limit their choices. I love camping out in VT, including all winter. It feels like an adventure to stay warm when it's cold. It also allows me to live SUPER cheap, saving money is easy. I am working a lot now to save up for land to plant food trees, go camping, and share the future abundance. If I felt attached the notion of staying inside some boring climate-controlled box, then I would have much less freedom. The norms we take for granted these days are deeply excessive when compared to all of human history. The average house is a palace and most people drive around a climate-controlled super chariot of the gods and we see that as normal and our basic due. We have collectively lost our damn minds. We have so much we don't even see or appreciate it, always wanting more to fill the void in our hearts left by the loss of community, of connection with each other, the only thing that really matters. Now we have simulated connwction with people online, all while behind a safe distance, a barrier. We get triggered by various manipulative media sources and spit poison at other triggered people and vote for some asshole and feel like we did something. All while ignoring our neighbors and people in need in our community.

Ewww! Is that a poor person! Yuck, get them out of my sight! They're bringing down my property value!!! We blame the leaders while being a bunch of empty-hearted bungholes ourselves.

[dennismitchell]

We have an added element of "planned obsolescence" where we are forced to buy crap. We have been manipulated to believe quality is vastly more expensive, but many of the crappy products could be designed to last for little if any increased cost. An example would be cheap shoes. The material holds up, but the sole will often fall off within weeks. We have cheap glue that prevents this. Designed thievery.

[rusope]

i have known all this for a while and it make me FURIOUS! why, why are people just accepting this sh*t. why are we not protesting? why ware we voting the ppl who keep this system firmly installed over and over again? honestly i have no hope that it will ever change. but tysm for this video, i hope more ppl see it.

[einzuwasu]

i thought about how pointless most jobs are very often, its comforting to hear that some researchers are investigating this issue, i hope for a more enlightend future.

[anon]

You really enlightened me about why real estate keeps growing. This isn't only about the 1% as much as it is about anyone who makes a little bit more, or did not start from rock bottom. So they just buy more real estate. Not because they bring value to the society, but because they store the previously generated value.

[rhythmandacoustics]

The problem with "productivity" gains is that almost ever measurement of it is based on GDP instead of having longer life expectancy, lower blood pressure, etc. The gains on the 21st century have mostly been internet of things which doesn't really improve your life much. I mean if Netflix and all this apps did not exists we would be even better mentally. Our economy also works on consumerism. Make money to buy stuff you do not need to please people you do not like.
Also people do what they hate for money and use that money for what they like.

[dohoaiphuong]

thank you so much. this year i'll be 21 years old, which mean i need to work and join this wtf system. i always try to find a way to leave this system as it just only create value for those who are already rich but can't really find a way yet, this video is a great kickstart for me

[friedec]

We're working so that the rich could buy their 100th houses they'll never live, 50th Ferarri they'll never ride, and their medium-rare steak dinner with gold leaves.