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Comment by UncleSlacky | Hacker News Reader

> It's just working itself that sucks.

AKA alienation of labor, as Marx put it:

> labor is external to the worker. It does not belong to his nature. He does not realize himself in his work, that he denies himself in it. That he does not feel at ease in it but rather unhappy. He does not develop free physical and mental energy in it... The worker is only himself when he does not work, and in his work he feels outside himself. He feels at home when he’s not working. When working he does not feel at home...His labor is not voluntary but forced.

tl;dr:

> You don't hate Mondays, you hate capitalism.

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> You don't hate Mondays, you hate capitalism

More likely, you hate modern hyper-specialized ways of production (in the broadest sense). Capitalism is what brought that mode of production about, but it's a prerequisite for any economic system that wants to be productive.

I think market socialism is a great idea and we should move towards it. I also think that it can occasionally give us all more agency, by increasing the power of employee representation and participation in firms.

However, I have little hope that it will truly move the needle on subjective/perceived alienation from our work for most people.

People hate Capitalism in the same way they hate Country Music.

They say, "I like all music except Country. I hate Country." And you say, "So you hate Johnny Cash?" And they say, "Oh. No, I like Johnny Cash. But I hate the rest of Country."

This is the Tao of Labels.

When people say "I like all music except Country" what they usually really mean is "I like all music except modern Pop-Country" because when you turn on the "Country" radio station you hear the modern pop country. I was the same way until I realized there's waaaay more good country music than what is played on the radio

But the Johnny Cash thing is spot on.

Are you implying that people somehow don't need to work in communist countries? I was too young to work during USSR times, but I can assure you my parents and grandparents hated Mondays as much as my generation do, if not more.

There's work that you do for yourself and to benefit yourself and your community, but this kind of work is the kind which doesn't benefit you, only your boss. In the case of the USSR, your boss was the state, hence why the USSR's economy is often referred to as "state capitalism".

Arguments against your theory: 1. Inefficiencies of labor distribution / shortages in USSR.

2. There were bosses in the USSR, called party members. Someone needs to manage.

3. Decreased motivation for high performance due to smaller "CEO"/common laborer wage gaps.

4. Inability of USSR to compete in both consumer goods and other areas except in a few focus points (mainly military) such as - small scale nuclear, rocket propulsion, certain areas of medicine, certain sports (far more actual research done than in the US), cavitating torpedoes, stealth subs, IR seekers, thermobarics, fighter wing leading edge vacuum generation from the SU27 copied in the F-15/MIG29, VTOL lift, etc

P.S. - I do agree with your parent comment.

Oh, but those countries weren't doing 'real communism'.

Compare https://www.econlib.org/socialism-the-failed-idea-that-never...

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