Does work have value beyond meeting financial needs?

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > Does work have value beyond meeting financial needs?

Cicero: Dec 17, 2003; Jumpjet, melta, jumpjet. Repeat for ten minutes or until victory is assured.

crack mayor posted:

- What is the moral value of work, if any exists? Is there some kind of character-building aspect of work that is unavailable with any other activity?

Let me play amateur psychologist, and suggest that what work does is create the expectation, in general, that you don't get something for nothing. That getting what you want from the world requires effort, sacrifice, and compromise on your part. I think the reason why people who do not work (people mooching off their parents indefinitely, or living off trust funds) can be so spoiled in their attitude with others is precisely that they're used to getting the basic necessities of life for free, so they automatically expect the same thing interpersonally (that others should treat them well with no effort on their part).

I think other activities (like volunteering or exercising or hobbies) could provide the same kind of character-building as working-for-money, but many people won't choose to engage in those things to the extent that they would get such a benefit, whereas work is obviously required for most people.

# ¿ Oct 17, 2014 23:27

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# ¿ May 15, 2024 01:47

Cicero: Dec 17, 2003; Jumpjet, melta, jumpjet. Repeat for ten minutes or until victory is assured.

I'm a bit confused as to whether we're regarding work as literally just effort-for-pay, or are including substantially work-like pursuits (volunteering at a soup kitchen, writing a blog just for fun, gardening, etc.). When people talk about how work is character-building, I think they're usually talking about productive effort in general, not solely anything that produces income. Nobody (well, almost nobody) thinks of stay-at-home moms as lazy idlers.

# ¿ Oct 24, 2014 22:42

Cicero: Dec 17, 2003; Jumpjet, melta, jumpjet. Repeat for ten minutes or until victory is assured.

I'm pretty sure some people legitimately enjoy games like FarmVille, though, it's just that few people do in SA's primary demographic of technologically-adept young males.

# ¿ Oct 28, 2014 22:32

Cicero: Dec 17, 2003; Jumpjet, melta, jumpjet. Repeat for ten minutes or until victory is assured.

Arri posted:

As an aside, can someone explain to me the value that people in the financial industry, who are often paid exorbitant wages, add to society? If the value of a job to society is indicated by how much people are willing to pay for that job to be done, then I'd like to know what the value is of financial work aside from making/moving money.

Why would you think this? The money people are willing to pay for a job to be done indicates what value it has for them, either personally or for their business. If I hire an assassin for fifty grand, it isn't because society thinks killing people is worth that much.

It's entirely possible for a job to be locally beneficial but globally detrimental.

# ¿ Oct 30, 2014 22:26

Cicero: Dec 17, 2003; Jumpjet, melta, jumpjet. Repeat for ten minutes or until victory is assured.

asdf32 posted:

You make an important point by suggesting that the status void currently occupied by pay will get filled in by something else. When I read threads like this I get the suspicion that some people are looking to liberate humans from external preassures and responsibilities, and assuming that they'll assume some higher state if this happens.

Not quite. If we remove the pressure to work and produce new forms of status and accompanying pressure will inevitably arise to fill that void.

Yup. I think you already see some of this in the first world, where getting by enough to not die is easy enough to where people are more likely to become depressed or nihilistic, OR they simply set the bar higher (must reach social status comparable to friends) and feel pressure to reach that.

# ¿ Oct 31, 2014 18:52

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