I'm currently taking some time off from work. I've had two positions in a row that I've found very depressing for a number of reasons that I'm sure everyone would relate to. Now that I've gotten a reprieve, it's easy to see how broken this system is. The pressure the system places on people doesn't lead to maximum economic productivity. People wake up, and they have to immediately get moving. I'm going to forego any mention of dependents because that's a whole other set of problems I know nothing about. Once they make it through terrible traffic where everyone is angry, they get to go to a job where everyone is demanding and anxious because of the system. They get a one-hour break while everyone else in the world is having their one-hour break, so they can basically go compete to purchase food and enjoy any part of that break. Then, they go back to work. At the end of the day, they get to enjoy that hellacious drive home where everyone is hungry, angry, and tired, and if they have nothing else going on, they get to enjoy the most exhausted part of their day. We pretend a weekend is actually time off, but no one develops a skill or does anything meaningful (as a general rule) in two 16-hour blocks per week, especially when they're right next to each other.
I'm mostly just spit-balling here, but it seems to come from this cultural obsession with marginal productivity. It's the effort version of being “penny wise and pound foolish.” Also, there's shame in ever detaching from that. It's only now that I've already left my position that I realize that level of depression I felt should have been covered by a short-term workers' compensation claim. I'm not sure if it actually would have been covered, but issues like that should be covered.
As a final note, you wouldn't believe the amount of panic other people have for me when I tell them I'm taking some time off work. They're sure that it will somehow be ruinous to me, and the expressions on their faces when I tell them that is another sign that we're closer to coerced labor than we are to meaningful effort toward producing anything of economic value.