Antiwork

From William MacAskill's book What We Owe The Future: “Following the Black Death in the fourteenth century, serfdom was soon replaced by free labour throughout Western Europe.” This line is footnoted with reference as follows from Encyclopedia Britannica 2019b: “The Black Death caused labour shortages that, in conjunction with growing central government power and peasant uprisings, contributed to the replacement of serfdom with a system of free peasantry by the end of the fifteenth century.” Just thought it was interesting.

Hello all. So for a little backstory, I recently started a new job, I've already received my first paycheck, and my salary is based on my years of experience. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ This week I was sent some last paperwork to sign from my new HR, and the paperwork said that I needed to send the enclosed form to my previous job to verify my years of experience or what I'm currently being paid would be lowered(!). I emailed new HR to ask when they needed the form, and also to ask the obvious question, “Wasn't my previous experience already verified before you started paying me based on my experience?” New HR told me they DIDN'T verify my previous experience, and even asked me “what made you believe we verified your experience before you started work?”. I told them that that was normally what happens. They told…

Because your job doesn't care about you. American culture has been gaslighting the general public for decades that “if you work hard enough you can live and achieve the American dream” when in reality all that has happened is that we've been screwed. The American Dream died once Nixon got in office, and ever since then we've tried to strive for a level of greatness in vain. The people you saw that are successful were either a) lucky or b) old enough to live in an era where the possibility of the American Dream was still alive. Instead, focus on what matters most like your family, hobbies, and loved ones. Stop buying those expensive things for status it it doesn't need to be replaced; go travel.

I wanna start a company with an office, pay my dudes and dudettes a fair wage, slip em a bill or two when the going gets tough, have pizza and shit all the time, crank dubstep and wear shorts when it's after office hours in my empty ass office and hustle the team on the weekends so we can all go out for a pint. Why can't I do that? Is the economy seriously that rigged? I don't expect miracles but man I seriously don't get how I cannot literally just be like “Ok you work for you, the rest keeps the lights on, the fridge stocked and the internet paid” Like, I want to be able to have an office where people can actually literally do nothing for their lunch break, actually sit down in the lunch room and have real food, maybe play a card game, catch up…