this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2024
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I’m struggling with this now. In my 20’s I worked all the low-wage crap jobs but I was physically moving a lot.
Now I get paid a lot more to sit on a computer all day at home, and I still love computer programming, web development, building networks, etc.
The problem is I miss it being a hobby. I’m kind of burned out on our work project and sometimes I daydream about going back to work in fast food. Believe it or not I loved working in the kitchen at McDonald’s during lunch rush — it sounds fucking cheesy but my store manager and I used to race to see who could make orders faster without making mistakes.
Going back is just not doable now with the cost of living now.
Edit: I realize writing this makes it sound like I’m calling garbage truck driver a shitty job; my intention originally was to say that I miss physically working (and to an extent being in the world) but I veered off in my late night state
I'd love a society where people have to work less for a start, but also where the blue collar jobs are distributed so that information workers had some physical job to do as well. That way they get to work their minds and their bodies, don't wear out either one, and the diversity of experience allows ideas to cross pollinate.
If an engineer worked in garbage disposal they'd be able to engineer out some pain points of the job. A doctor, physiotherapist, administrator, researcher, lawyer, all could learn and help a lot if they saw how the other side lives. People doing blue collar jobs wouldn't be stuck, continuing education would be normalised, the "prestige" aspect of different jobs would be lessened, service and menial workers would be less neglected, and the "ivory tower" of white collar and academic work would come down.
The wages for those jobs would need to go up. I don't know why the most important jobs in a society like cleaning are some of the worst paid and looked down.
Since we're fantasising about an ideal society I'd get rid of wage slavery entirely.
I agree the best jobs are the worst paid, but I think the absolute most important are jobs like child-rearing, and they're usually completely unpaid. It's basically a complete inversion between pay grade and importance.