Melancholy and somewhat aggressive thoughts on work

This is the working hour,

We are paid by those who learn by our mistakes

- Tears for Fears, “The Working Hour”

We want work.  We want jobs.  We want the things that an income helps provide.  But how to structure work?  Do we base it solely on what people are capable of doing, how much water can be squeezed from a stone? 

We don’t have a say in how much we work.  In the past workers’ movements got the work week reduced to 40 hours – perhaps we would be better off if those controls were removed.  Maybe then people would be healthier, less fat.  Maybe then people would better prioritize their off-hours and peel their eyes at least momentarily from the torrent of shit presented on whatever kind of screen.  Maybe if 60 or 100 hours a week were the norm people could grow some compassion and fellow-feeling for their co-slaves being worked harsh hours around the world.

But keep in mind the US worker already works more than any other worker amongst developed nations – more than the stereotypically harried Japanese worker.  We have no mandated vacation time.  39% of Americans work 50 hours a week or more.  This in a country where so many simply want a job. 

This will never go away.  Work and toil are part of the human condition in whatever age, whatever epoch.  Work is a part of human life from the blind work of the body itself out to the visible working world.  Structured differently at different times.  Serfs didn’t organize, at least not when the kings sat solidly on their thrones.  We are subjects today, subjected to working regimes dictated from above.  The rhetoric around schools is likewise captive: we strive for better education and for call for students to “go on” to higher education in order to get better jobs.  Is this a cargo cult?  Can I walk around town wearing a suit, advanced degree tucked securely in my briefcase and expect an employer to run up to me, offering a sick job?

The regulations and standards surrounding work will change and disappear in the future.  In 10 years, 20, 50, 100 years work here in the United States will look like work now in China.  Or the Amazon.  People will be forced to work untold hours.  Or they may live under some feudal regime that dictates their work schedule.  Who knows what the people of the future will think of our working lives today.