I joined antiwork because I thought it was going to be about wanting a future where humans didn’t have to work most of their waking hours but instead could live self-sufficiently doing what our ancestors did centuries ago: building their own homes, growing their own food, hunting, learning about wild plants and their medicinal properties, have lots of leisure time, etc. without feeling the misery of debt and necessary monthly expenses requiring us to work shit jobs for minimum wage.
I have a masters degree and for the honest-to-god life of me I cannot find a job that pays more than $21 an hour. And I live in a place where rent is $1500 a month minimum and I have a car payment and student loans and need to eat. I can’t. Afford. These. Shit. Jobs. Period.
And I read all these stories about shitty managers and “I put my resume on indeed and had an offer for 30% more than I’m making within 5 minutes.” This has to be the same as winning the lottery. I see no jobs. Nothing. Everything is entry-level or mid-level but paying entry-level anyway. And I’ve been applying to jobs to get out of my shitty situation. And even though “there is a worker shortage they need us more than we need them”, I have yet to get an offer. Places are either no longer hiring for the position I hired for or I just didn’t get it.
I’m happy for all those who get these great magical high-paying jobs and believe in these lovely platitudes, but they’re not true for probably 95% of us. And it’s depressing as hell.