Have humans always been so defined by their work? Honest question. I personally find a lot of fulfillment in my work. But I don't know how I could expect a janitor at a truck stop to feel the same way.
I feel like the answer to this conundrum -- and in general the long term trend of job obviation -- is to decouple an individual's worth from their economic value.
But what would a world without work look like? I can imagine it being heaven or hell.
Its something we better start getting ready for because technology gets rid of far more jobs than it creates and will only continue to do so for the forseeable future.
Eventually only super highly skilled and creative jobs (writing, art etc) that can't be handled by robot/android/humanoids will be left to do and we'll have to figure out how to allot a basic living wage to people with increments to that coming based on ... specious things like their popularity ... maybe? (I shudder to imagine this)
>increments to that coming based on ... specious things like their popularity ... maybe? (I shudder to imagine this)
What about being allocated money based on your positive (and negative) contributions to society? You currently can earn millions doing absolutely nothing useful ripping people off in wall st or earn pennies devoting your life to helping others
"Eventually only super highly skilled and creative jobs (writing, art etc) that can't be handled by robot/android/humanoids will be left to do and we'll have to figure out how to allot a basic living wage..."
That vision was sold to us in the 70's, but despite the technological advancement, we are all working a lot more.
that is not surprising. In a society where ones identity is tied to ones job as tightly as it is in the US, its not surprising that as the job market shrinks, the people with jobs will tend to work harder and harder to justify having said jobs.
And when i talk about this scenario, I'm not talking about 10 20 or even 30 years. I'm talking 100, maybe 150 years from now that this becomes a reality.
Historically, young men would be sent to war and then, after being horribly traumatized, return to seek solace in family, community or alcoholism. Women were stuck with all the hard and mind-numbing household work, not allowed to take up a profession.
So I'd answer your question with no, they have not been defined by their work because life was too horrible. Needless to say that it doesn't follow that we _should_ let ourselves be definded by our work.
Plenty of periods in history were relatively happy, especially when we are talking about middle class. It was not hell-only all the time. Plenty of man were happy in their day jobs back then or slacked them through or felt succesful.
In university I did a summer job at my local municipality twice. Those people had extremely boring job and joked openly about how they had to learn to work less hard. A lot of them had hobbies where they derived their life satisfaction from, like being a coach for the local football team.
I feel like the answer to this conundrum -- and in general the long term trend of job obviation -- is to decouple an individual's worth from their economic value.
But what would a world without work look like? I can imagine it being heaven or hell.