Comment by dade_ | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dade_ | Hacker News Reader

So this explanation is neat and tidy. The problem we learned in COVID payouts is that people would rather watch Netflix and smoke weed all day than do any amount of low skilled work at a job they hate. So they start demanding exorbitant wages, show up late, if at all. This is productive work, and productive work that frees higher skilled resources to be more productive.

Based on the employers explaining this problem, they are asshole bosses. And in our 'normal' system of jobs and no UBI or other payouts, they can get away with treating people poorly. However, low skilled jobs don't have to be bad jobs, people enjoy all sorts of work and even find meaning in them. In this UBI / cash transfer role: employers can't get away with being an asshole(without spending big $$$) and have to connect meaning for the employee to the work they need done.

> The problem we learned in COVID payouts is that people would rather watch Netflix and smoke weed all day than do any amount of low skilled work at a job they hate.

We've uh, we've known this for millennia. "When no longer required to do something that they hate, people will often choose to stop doing that hated thing." is not even a little bit surprising.

> ...and have to connect meaning for the employee to the work they need done.

Nah. Most folks don't give a shit about whether or not their work has "meaning". They work to fund their hobbies and fun, they don't work to find "meaning". Terminally-management-brained middle managers sure THINK that it's important for rank-and-file people to understand that their work has "meaning", though. They can't fuckin seem to shut up about it.

That's not my experience at all. Most people I know and have worked with care a lot about if their work has meaning. The people who do not are the outliers.

So, most people you know live to work, rather than work to live? Just out of curiosity, are most people you know what would generally be called in the US "white-collar" workers?

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