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Comment by sandworm101 | Hacker News Reader

>> Anybody that works a job well deserves respect

Everyone deserves respect, even those who do not work "well". Being bad at one's job doesn't means anything in terms of access to basic services. Half the people in any job are below the average. Basic dignities must be provided to all, even those a day away from being fired. I've seen it so many times that the "underperformer" or new guy in the office ends up working through every lunch or pulling the bad shifts because "they deserve it". That isn't a healthy work environment.

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One way someone whom you label above as an “underperformer” can make themselves more valuable to the team us by taking work that others don’t want to do. One way they can close some of their performance gap is by working more. Both of those could easily be a perfectly rational and voluntary response to preserve their job.

Society simply sucks as even to view someone as a human being, they have to be a valuable member (means work whole life). Not good enough, just work more. Basically be a cog in the economic system or die.

It's way better than hunting for food everyday or facing starvation or predation like most other animals face. We've advanced significantly over the inherently brutal and unforgiving initial conditions of life.

We've built economic and social systems that allow most people to die of what we used to call "old age" and now name as specific diseases that typically manifest in old age [rather than starvation, expousure, or predation].

That people have to contribute in some way to enjoy the fruits of all that aggregate labor doesn't seem so unreasonable to me. All the people required to do all the back-breaking work of farming, transporting, building, cleaning, purifying, and cooking aren't going to do that labor while you enjoy life doing nothing constructive that helps them via some chain of events/transactions.

> back-breaking work of farming, transporting, building, cleaning, purifying, and cooking

Those hard working class are not the most respected or even earning. They are also just doing that for basic needs, minimum wage. This truck driver story itself is about them. Pandemic made it even more clear what society think about them.

Other hand people that are making personal data selling websites, playing stock market, destroying planet for greed are doing great. They can suck millions by unethical means, retire, buy yacht. But goddammit, as soon as someone from lower or middle class wants to slack off, they are told to be useless part of society, work hard, break health. Feels like some kind of capitalist propaganda.

Well, it’s a little brutal to think about it. But it’s true. Because if the economic system stopped working, we would ALL die

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29041607

Well, you got me. When I’m not making a dead easy million on stocks, I’m lazing about on my various yachts; unless, of course, the mood to crush a few peasants strikes.

Your imagination must be an odd place indeed.

Consider that being "valuable" means contributing to the services that provide for human beings, be it bathroom facilities, medical care or pensions; If being treated as human means being provided these services, why shouldn't there be conditional contribution?

And the people who virtue-signal "Well I think they should be treated humanely!" are rarely the people at low-paid services end, struggling to compete with the status quo.

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