@Free Let’s think: if the demand was different, then the job market would look different. @penmanship hello!! I’ve read your answer, follow along please!
Demand is created out of causality (whatever happened before). This includes bad/wrong influences (lies, misconceptions or bad arguments spread to the masses through propaganda and/or advertising; plus there’s previous bad habits/culture of individuals/groups that get carried on subconsciously & reinforce this demand). Such bad influences may not justify the demand rationally or ethically, but our job markets continue to blindly, amorally and sometimes immorally provide the supply to such demand.
Working conditions are bound to suck sooner or later, if it’s going to be ONLY about monetary profts, cost-cutting measures, KPIs & other metrics, Quarterly Reports and answering to the shareholders; and NOT about humanity, ethics, answering to the future generations… considering the externalities, using better metrics… basically, ensuring that our work results in a net positive Value (benefits getting created are MORE than harms being caused).
Could you please go back to my original post, and look again at the second part where I’m saying something about taking a Systems perspective, looking at the actions being done and considering the net benefits created - net harms caused (at least to the non-competitors who depend on you or who you depend on – since causing harm only to your equivalent competitors could simply be called fair competition), and using this to determine if those actions are Work or Anti-Work…
I think the anti-work phenomenon exists and is growing due to the fact that more of our jobs have become about less net benefits being created (and usually mostly for the owners of the company and a few sycophant employees) and more net harms being caused (for the ecosystem, for most employees, for consumers, for our social fabric). Of course most people will feel terrible about this!
Even in the case of “happy” users/consumers, they may be feeling positive because they tend to see the benefits and are blind to the harms caused (including being addicted to the product, so of course they’re gonna be biased), thus only stating “hey this is an amazing product, I love it! Give me more!”. Or, is it case that most users of social media today are being very rational and alert and saying, “extractive attention economy is bad, please change the design, it is causing more harms than good to our lives, and tearing apart our social fabric?”
In short, the “anti-work movement” exists because more of our jobs are Anti-Work rather than Work, because the fundamental “Demand-Supply” running this world has been, both adversely affected by Human Downgrading and also causing it, in a vicious cycle that only accelerates if kept unchecked. This also means that the “Invisible Hand” of the Supply-Demand cycle needs to be made to consider & determine whether the actions being done/planned are Work or Anti-Work, if we want to ensure better jobs, better outcomes and better lives for more and more. In short, the Greater Good.
I have a hunch that we need to be competing fairly and/or collaborating more and across the systems in order to ensure the Greater Good: more Work, less Anti-Work.
I’m not proposing this as a miracle/panacea. This will be about changing our perspectives and conversations, changing the metrics and the incentives, changing how different parts of the systems are interacting.
Ethics and Empathy can help guide us in this. Aren’t these two of the most important factors that distinguish us from both animals and machines? In other words, aren’t they what make humans Humane?
In short, I’m feeling that only Humanity can save mankind, along with the rest of the Planet Earth, our Mother.