The Long History of Nobody Wants to Work Anymore • Hacker News Board

Re: The Long History of Nobody Wants to Work Anymore

#141

Post by xyst » Sun, Jul 30, 2023, 3:20 PM UTC

Some quotes appear to be from agriculture sector. A sector known for hiring immigrants because of the long hours, low pay, abusive environments (threats of ICE detention, …)

Some quotes appear to be from the service industry and during the pandemic. In the US, the minimum wage is STILL $7.25/hour. If you are a server the minimum wage is $2.13/hour. No shit, nobody wants to work. No way I am risking dying because a Karen does not want to mask up or get vaccinated for minimum wage, no benefits, no prospects.

All in all, when a business owner or hiring manager says “people don’t want to work anymore”. That’s really code for: we abuse our employees, pay is shit, hours are probably long.

Re: The Long History of Nobody Wants to Work Anymore

#142

Post by mordae » Sun, Jul 30, 2023, 3:20 PM UTC

constantly wrote: post #11

swayvil wrote: post #4

Modern work is weird. All your energy goes into it. But at the end of the day there's no satisfaction. Just emptiness and exhaustion. So you invest your remaining time in entertainments, drugs and shopping. Frantically groping for a scrap of joy. My friends in carpentry call it "feeding the monkey". The monkey must be fed, one way or another.

Speak for yourself, I know many people who derive a lot of joy from their work and find it energizing, myself included.

I don't think that's relevant unless you state your age and it is well above 30. Until then you are inevitably clueless and usually sought after by the employers because you are full of energy and cheap to rent, chow and spit out when you burn out.

Re: The Long History of Nobody Wants to Work Anymore

#143

Post by throw9away6 » Sun, Jul 30, 2023, 3:20 PM UTC

qaq wrote: post #122

usrbinbash wrote: post #53

It's pretty simple really. If the reward from working is barely enough to cover the necessities, then there is technically no difference between working as a free citizen, and being forced to work as an indentured servant, other than a vague notion of freedom, which in that case is the freedom to decide between working and living on the streets. And people don't like being indentured servants. History should have mad…

[flagged]

You just need to own a million dollar truck, have no life and be at risk of bankruptcy if the economy goes wrong. Also work 12-14 hrs and get paid for 8.

Re: The Long History of Nobody Wants to Work Anymore

#144

Post by ricardobeat » Sun, Jul 30, 2023, 3:21 PM UTC

And here we have a thread that made the rounds on Twitter a few weeks back, being plagiarized on Mastodon for clicks.

This is the equivalent of content farming on the web, and absolutely sucks, how do we stop it?

Re: The Long History of Nobody Wants to Work Anymore

#145

Post by Borg3 » Sun, Jul 30, 2023, 3:21 PM UTC

jader201 wrote: post #69

cmilton wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. I will never work a job with a >10 minute commute another day in my life. On top of the time lost, you don’t even get paid for it. It costs you time and money to go to work.

I wonder if workers, at some point, will be able to start demanding compensation for commute to work, when there it is perfectly possible to work from home? E.g. these tech companies that are starting to require employees to return to office. On the other hand, we don’t get compensated (fully [1]) for the utilities cost from working from home. [1] Some reimburse things like internet, but that’s about it. We can’t eve…

Dude really? The cost of working from home is absolutly minimal. You gain much more than you loss.

You do NOT waste time and money commuting. You can eat healtier food. You can take break when you really need it. People who say that they need to get compesation for WFH cant do basic math...

Re: The Long History of Nobody Wants to Work Anymore

#146

Post by thrillgore » Sun, Jul 30, 2023, 3:22 PM UTC

For me, the issue is there's work, but nobody wants to hire me because I:

* Have been off the job market for a while because nobody would interview me let alone consider me

* The last job I had was a month long, and it ended with my termination for performance in a setting where I arguably could not succeed.

And my run of bad luck has led to difficulty keeping work for the past two years. Its not fair, and I can't blame anyone for not wanting to do it anymore. The juice isn't worth the squeeze.

Re: The Long History of Nobody Wants to Work Anymore

#147

Post by throw9away6 » Sun, Jul 30, 2023, 3:22 PM UTC

xyst wrote: post #141

Some quotes appear to be from agriculture sector. A sector known for hiring immigrants because of the long hours, low pay, abusive environments (threats of ICE detention, …) Some quotes appear to be from the service industry and during the pandemic. In the US, the minimum wage is STILL $7.25/hour. If you are a server the minimum wage is $2.13/hour. No shit, nobody wants to work. No way I am risking dying because a Ka…

Guarantee you will earn more begging on a street corner in any liberal city.

Re: The Long History of Nobody Wants to Work Anymore

#148

Post by kjkjadksj » Sun, Jul 30, 2023, 3:22 PM UTC

bbarn wrote: post #109

usrbinbash wrote: post #53

It's pretty simple really. If the reward from working is barely enough to cover the necessities, then there is technically no difference between working as a free citizen, and being forced to work as an indentured servant, other than a vague notion of freedom, which in that case is the freedom to decide between working and living on the streets. And people don't like being indentured servants. History should have mad…

I have heard the argument that a negative effect of the post WW2 "feminist" movement (by that I mean women in the work force) has had the long term effect of causing prices to simply adjust to the dual income household, to the point that now it is a necessity. It is a privileged family today that can afford to live comfortably on only one salary.

Theres another level to this going on in certain places too. Its not enough to have both partners working. Now in places like the bay area if you want to be competitive in the housing market, both partners have to be working high income jobs not just working at all. Even if you have a great title, if your partner doesnt, you will be lapped by people who have vastly more buying power than either of you can ever muster together.

I wonder if this creates some serious perverse incentives in the dating scene in these parts of the country. Like people who understand this economic situation and unfortunately write off what might have been great partners because their line of work will never afford the standards of living their dual high income peers are able to achieve.

Re: The Long History of Nobody Wants to Work Anymore

#149

Post by lokar » Sun, Jul 30, 2023, 3:23 PM UTC

bbarn wrote: post #109

usrbinbash wrote: post #53

It's pretty simple really. If the reward from working is barely enough to cover the necessities, then there is technically no difference between working as a free citizen, and being forced to work as an indentured servant, other than a vague notion of freedom, which in that case is the freedom to decide between working and living on the streets. And people don't like being indentured servants. History should have mad…

I have heard the argument that a negative effect of the post WW2 "feminist" movement (by that I mean women in the work force) has had the long term effect of causing prices to simply adjust to the dual income household, to the point that now it is a necessity. It is a privileged family today that can afford to live comfortably on only one salary.

I think piketty would disagree. Productivity per worker has gone up but the share of profits going to workers has gone down. This is not some kind of inflation driven by scarcity.

Re: The Long History of Nobody Wants to Work Anymore

#150

Post by mahogany » Sun, Jul 30, 2023, 3:23 PM UTC

gambiting wrote: post #60

swayvil wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You literally told the worker that his misery is his own fault for having chosen the wrong job.

I said if there is no satisfaction then you need to find a different job. The misery part was added by you.

> I said if there is no satisfaction then you need to find a different job.

In this is the implicit assumption that there are enough jobs to give everyone satisfaction - that is what people are taking issue with. Do you believe that assumption is true?