What do I mean by that?
I mean that you, the person doing the hard work, do not get its monetary benefit. Someone else does. Sure, there are exceptions, but it is hard to argue overall.
Do you need more proof?
Around 10% own 53% of the world’s wealth.
Oxfam report from 2019 found that 26 wealthiest billionaires own the same as 3.8 billion other people.
Homelessness is an epidemic in most countries. The wealth gap is widening.
Minorities and women are still massively unrepresented literally everywhere.
CEOs are paid way more than employees in the same organizations.
Is that because they work that much harder and everyone else is lazy?
I don’t think so. Most likely, they found a way to get others to work harder.
We are told to work hard for future benefit. It’s always in the future.
But right now, someone else is deriving the benefit. It’s just the world order. Don’t worry; you will get your turn.
While you are here working hard, you might as well reward yourself with these items carefully selected for you. It’s a small fraction of your salary. What’s the point of working hard if you don’t spend?
What? Do you want to take your foot off the pedal?
You cannot do that; you are so close to that new step! Do you really want to be like all these other people without representation, homes, or money? That’s what happened. No, it’s not because they started 1 kilometer behind in a 100-meter race. They just were not motivated enough.
But don’t worry. Just work hard and buy a new phone. You’ll be rewarded in the future.
Why is hard work not paying a problem?
Sure, there have always been people who didn’t believe in hard work.
However, now, this narrative is becoming mainstream, and thanks to the information age, it’s doing so very fast.
A study found that over 25% of young people want to be influencers. In some articles I’ve read the percentage is as high as 86% percent.
Quiet quitting is slowly becoming the norm in my experience; it’s actually not doing even some areas that should be in the job description.
Every single woman of my age I know has stopped trying as hard in her career. Why? We are fed up with doing all-nighters for men to be promoted. That is half of the mid-career workforce.
Some professions are in crisis. Nurses, police officers, teachers, and doctors are leaving in droves.
Errors in medicine cost lives and are ‘normalized’ or not appropriately investigated. Racism and Sexism in the NHS are appalling.
Engineering is in crisis. Not software engineers and devs, actual engineers. The ones that design and maintain bridges, nuclear power stations, and systems that keep us free from floods and ensure our tap water doesn’t kill us. Finance and Tech seem to have poached most of the math-minded graduates. I get it. You get to sit in a nice air-conditioned sipping frappuccinos office while earning more money.
Combine all of the above, and many potential ideas never come out. Cycles of mismanagement and overspending. Good ideas are not reaching their potential.
Why is that important?
Well, in case you are not concerned with having a fair society where we do not throw people on the fire with ‘you chose to be an X therefore, this is on you. Never mind that choices that someone makes as teens are not indeed fully formed.
It would be nice if we actually do something meaningful about discrimination in the workplace instead of telling people to work harder.
We are heading head-first into oblivion.
If some people don’t like the professions, why don’t they just leave?
Sure, they can and they do.
But is that what we actually want?
What exactly would happen if all the doctors, nurses, and care support staff went into better-paid professions?
When half of the workforce decides there is no point in even trying hard. When the next generation will be bloggers and busy selling stuff online.
When no one believes in hard work, learning, and education?
When learning how to use Canva and Adobe becomes everyone’s development goal for the year?
Maybe it’s time we actually make it true?
Paying hard work, doctors and nurses will be incentivized to look after patients better. More would join the industry, making it easier for the ones already there.
I’ve heard the argument that some careers are not about pay. That the intrinsic satisfaction of helping someone is the most fulfilling thing, you can have.
That’s bull. Tell that to the burnt-out EVERYONE. When inflation is at 12% and no one seems to care about anyone but themselves, I bet it becomes pretty quick about pay.
And, why shouldn’t it be about pay? We’ve all just accepted that it’s okay to pay some professions less. Why exactly is that? Since they are state paid? Aren’t many contractors on the state’s payroll making much money? Millions spent on the covid crisis that magically vanished?
A person should not have to choose between helping people and earning money a decent wage. How many people would have chosen different careers to do something meaningful? I know I would have.
Pay hard work, and then the smartest, hard-working individual will win. Not the one that looks like it will fit in. Then, they could serve as an inspiration to others.
More CEOs called David & Steve than women, and ethnic minorities would be a thing of the past.
Professions we need will have more motivated people coming in. Many absolute top graduates would want to fix problems in medicine, educate students and build bridges.
We are heading head-first into an oblivion of our own making.
Don’t expect people to continue working hard for someone else to reap the benefit.
What will happen when most people decide they don’t want to do the hard work without pay.