why do we work so much?

It’s pretty strange to me that for the relatively little time humans are alive, they’re expected to work so damn much. I mean, 40 hours per week (if you’re lucky) for roughly 50 years is such a huge chunk of our lives. With eight hours of sleep per night, this leaves us with essentially no time to do other things.

Do we exist to merely work, eat, shit, and sleep? Because to me, that seems pretty depressing and a waste of the precious lives we’ve been granted.

I get that people can find fulfillment through their jobs – and for those who do, that’s amazing. But, I am willing to bet that not everyone is exactly thrilled to spend their lives sitting at a counter or a desk in some nondescript building day in and day out just to put food on the table.

It really doesn’t have to be this way. We chose this system and have been doing it for so long that to question it seems *gasp!* lazy. With such a beautiful planet to explore, surely we could be doing so much more with our time. Unfortunately, only a privileged few have the opportunity to travel (if that’s their thing) or explore further, while the vast majority spend their time slaving their lives away just to afford rent and basic necessities.

But we have to work, right? I mean, how else would we afford food or pay rent? Although, I think a better question is: why are humans the only species to put their food under lock and key and require humans to work menial jobs to live? I thought we were supposed to be the most intelligent species or something. We pride ourselves in the fact that we’re distinct from other animals, but fail to see why insisting on this type of lifestyle can be incredibly restrictive and depressing.

The way of life that is pushed on us in our modern world is centered around taking as much as possible from the land, manipulating what we find into useless objects, selling it for profit, and exploiting humans at the bottom of the socially constructed hierarchy along the way. It’s no wonder anthropogenic climate change is such a pervasive issue. Our entire economy continually facilitates the destruction of our ecosystem to immediately benefit those at the top.

I wish I could leave this system, but it is so apparent and all-consuming that living an alternative lifestyle is hardly a choice.

I suppose an alternative could be living in another country on way less, but alas, covid took away that option for the foreseeable future. Still though, nearly every “civilized” society lives in this style. There are a handful of indigenous groups of people who live off the land, but their numbers are quickly diminishing and their lifestyle is deemed “savage” by many close-minded people in our own culture, not to mention the fact that we have been infringing on their land for thousands of years and don’t really allow people to live in other ways.

I could go on and on ranting about the many issues perpetuated by our way of living, but ultimately it comes down to this: there is no choice. There is no way to leave modern society unless you want to join some fringe commune or cult – which in many ways are still under the umbrella of “modern society.” They still are required to operate under the same man-made laws and rules that we do. There is no escape from the systems we’ve created. But the good news is that none of this is set in stone.

We chose this way, so we’re capable of choosing another, or many other ways of being. Just because these patterns have existed for some time does not mean humans were meant to live this way, nor does it mean that we should continue to do so.