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>Should people give their lives for a profession?

I have recently begun to appreciate how much (in the US) we structure our entire existence around our jobs, and how we earn money. The puritan work ethic, extrapolated out across BS jobs encourages so many of us to identify as our jobs, and make that our sense of self.

It's ridiculous.

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The puritans wouldn't have advocated holding off getting married or having children to work for a megacorp 80 hours a week. They wouldn't be impressed you are the "assistant to the senior vice president" or whatever. I don't think we can blame modern "hussle culture" on the puritans, it's more of a neoliberal thing to get let yourself get consumed by a job and hire out all your basic needs (take out, daycare, housekeepers) like we do today.

It's not just the Puritan work ethic. The dearth of support and extreme scarcity of housing play a huge role.

If you won't center your entire life around work, there's a long line of people who will, and your employer would happily hire one of them and throw you into the proverbial wood chipper of being unemploymed in the US.

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