Work used to give you dignity. Now it takes it away.

It’s not that ppl don’t want to work, it’s that they don’t want to be exploited 💯

You used to have one job that paid the bills until you retired. Now, you have to have one or more employee positions, run your own small business, have 3 side gigs, sell your art, write a book, coach your kids sports team, pet sit when your friends go on vaca, etc. all to make ends meet. Yet, the older generations still say we are lazy and entitled even though it seems they were the lazy entitled ones who had one mindless employee position.

When you dangle the carrot an unreasonable distance from the horse, the horse finds something else to eat.

1. Nobody inteligent wants to do work that makes no sense or brings no satisfaction anymore. 2. Nobody mentaly elevated wants to have relationships wih simple minded others.

Working feels like slavery.

Toxic coworkers, bullying managers, few-to-no prospects - what's there not to like?

Not sure what it’s like in other countries but here in the UK you end up working 5/6 days a week, getting up at the crack of Dawn and then by the time you’ve got home, looked after kids, dinner etc it’s bed time again. You get taxed a crazy amount of money for public services that don’t work or are getting worse. You lose almost all of your free time because on your days off you’re doing all the things that you need to do like shopping, cleaning, maintenance. All while seeing people on TV like politicians who are blatantly playing the system to advance their own lives, seeing people coming across on boats who get everything handed to them by the government. Then the next week you do it all again and again. Then at the end of the month you get paid but guess what? Once you’ve paid your bills there’s nothing left for a treat or to save for a house/pension. Oh wait! What’s that? A letter from a company or your landlord!! Prices rising again!…. You work all week and never get anywhere in life.

Workplaces ARE dictatorships! As an employee in a professional firm you are constantly monitored, paid only very reluctantly and only because they have to pay you, you are harassed, bullied and are given tough targets and deadlines to meet. On top of that you have to write long reports at the end of the week and send it to a multitude of people who often come back with dumb questions you need to waste time to answer. In other words, work is hell. On top of that, the stock market is going to shit, so even your retirement savings won't be enough to allow you to retire until you're 70.

I worked my butt off day after day for people who treated me like a piece of crap..... For low wages.

As someone who has been working since 1985, I honestly PREFERRED the days when we were 'just' clerks or bus boys. In recent decades, employers often give employees fancy sounding titles like 'food service specialists' or 'account managers' when in reality, we're still basically the same old working stiffs. Back then we were considered 'ignorant' but at least management took care of more than they do now (health insurance, for example). Now, even though we're getting paid less (after inflation), still have no decision making powers and are treated no better, we're expected to be 'smart' and 'responsible.' Really, it's the worst of both worlds in some work places: Being treated like a soda jerk, but being expected to perform with the wisdom and devotion of a fortune 500 executive.

But not everyone wants to become an influencer or dropshipper, some of us just want to work a normal job (if it paid us a livable wage) . Not all of us can or want to become influencers

im so proud of the next gen. Im 40 yrs old went to college and work in traditional sense. im teaching my kids this is NOT the way. The purpose of life is to find your purpose and pour your heart and soul into it.

There is a big problem with the path you described here. Content creators are often paid by big corporations with their own set of rules different than your public, in the end you are still inside the trap. Even if you are a freelancer you depend on internet that is carried by other companies and to be found you depend on SEO, algorithms, all of them run by big companies

Under a third party company for Amazon i delivered groceries to wealthy people in New York. I got paid minimum wage, inconsistent work schedule, no microwave, no water, 10 hour shifts, not a single place to sit down and rest. It genuinely felt like slavery especially when living paycheck to paycheck. Being on minimum wage one risks loosing public assistance making the cost burden even worse.

I was born in 1962, and businesses took obscene advantage of our hard work ethic - then failed to give the rewards of less work hours & good pay after we "paid our dues." The nation's work ethic was totally lost, as govt taxed the Working Class into poverty & Big Business outsourced jobs overseas & minimized them with automation. Unfortunately, Big Govt & Big Business has merged into a Fascist Corporatocracy, and this became a Ruling Class - one devoid of any merit, ethics or morals. Small & mid-sized businesses are the traditional souce of upward mobility, but these are immediately bought or destroyed by Big Business (using the power of govt) if successful.

When I initially joined the work force it was the most horrible experience in my life from toxic managers and coworkers to over demanding customers. The wage could not make up for the mental exhaustion I tolerated with all the verbal abuse. I finally worked my way up to a very comfortable job after several job hopping with better working conditions and a boss I respect and can truly call a friend who I trust but due to the trauma I just lost motivation and no longer want to work anymore despite the better working conditions granted to me. I still maintain a satisfactory work ethic to my manager only because she is very nice to me but if I had a choice I wouldn’t work period!

People are tired of being used for corporate greed. The US needs to step up its game with healthcare, wages, vacation time, and respect. I moved to Europe in 2019, these folks have healthcare, 30 days of vacation, and your boss is not allowed to contact you during off hours.

I think the pandemic forced us to think of our mortality and think of what really matters. And working for the man just isn't what matters.

I agree with you Stephen. I worked at a hospital for 7years without a raise. They said I was non-essential personal. But would threaten to fire me if I did not come in and work through storms or bad weather. Which meant being away from my family during the bad weather and working extreme long hours. But, I wasn't worth a raise decided by the CEO and backed by the board officials. It was criminal how I was treated. Now I am sick and on disability and I am as poor as when I worked. But, everything has gone up in cost. I know the stress of that job has caused some of my illnesses along with age and environmental pollution. Sometimes I think the nation should come together and strike. Period, everyone of us. For better pay, for better social security that we paid into for over 30 years, but it's deemed as a handout. All of the businesses could afford to pay a living wage. It does sound like communism of the worst kind. Elderly or people are living in tents in the street because the system they paid into is failing them. Meanwhile, our president is just giving millions away. This country clearly does not care about us the people, Young, sick, or old. 😢

I don't even want to be alive. You think I want to work?!?

I am a baby boomer. Young people don't have the opportunities my generation had. My parents' generation had it better after world war 2 ended. This is mainly due to corporate greed and the US Dollar not backed by anything.

You just blew my mind! And it's true, working for these companies was tolerable when the reward was a good income - thus granting greater personal freedom. But when the money barely pays the rent, you start wondering why you bother

Geez, been working for 40 plus years, can't think of a single day when I have gone... "Ï want to go to work today"

A lot of what you're saying is resonating with me lately, working an average full-time job here in Australia will pay your rent and some but you just get by. People are waking up.

All I wanted was a nice, meaningful and hard job with a lot of depth, I took computer and design classes hoping to be an artist along the way. Tried to get a job as a graphic designer in my 20': nobody freaking wanted me around and nobody responded to my mails. It's like I was an alien or a ghost. I knew there was work around yet no spot left for me. Ultimately went full artist freelance by myself, but that required learning a lot by myself. By the time I got actually pretty damn good: AI happens and is depressing me to no end. F this.

I honestly think that there are private businesses that provide great work environment where you really feel like your ideas are making a difference while also providing great salary but it's mostly in the tech industry... Other industries are still using the "Old Management" approach. They will have to adapt, otherwise they will be in deep trouble in a couple of years...

It's a temporary event, channeling all the work force into media will flatline society. We haven't achieved automation in enough fields to take over the loss of workers, which will in turn lead to shortages in different places. Hence why shortages are happening. Not everyone can be a vlogger, or a video creator. The market will become over saturated. Learn how to do things with your hands, that's true currency. Learn how to think things through without a screen, that's true freedom.

Oh, we love to work.We are just done with being slaves .......

My father is in his late 70's and how he became successful cannot be done in today's world. It's literally impossible. But he thinks we're lazy too bc he workwd so hard for so many years paying things off, which again have become completely unaffordble.

You won't need money if there are no products to buy. Someone has to make them. Who will build the house you want to live in? Where are the real men?

‘Job’ require too much time and provide too little in return. A job is mean to support a life. It is not a life.

Very well said. When my father bought his first house, it cost 1 year salary. When I bought my first house, it cost 3 years salary. Today, to buy a first house is 5 to 10 years salary. We now live in an economy of slavery, where young people are slaves to debt.

When I was a kid, my father worked a decent job, and also worked a side job to bring in extra money. Now I work a job that is comparable to his was in terms of income, and I occasionally thing about working a part time job for extra money, but part time jobs pay SO POORLY. Most of them pay an hourly rate close to half or even a third of the hourly rate at my full-time job. It’s just genuinely not worth giving up my weekends for the extra cash because I’d basically be working two extra days for less than a days pay.

Basically people want to be rewarded. If you lessen or take away the reward, it kills the incentive. No reward=no production.

We need more truth like this out there to fight the corporate mass media gaslighting, so thanks for this well-laid-out video!❤

People wanna work. They wanna work where they're needed and well compensated.

Workers get crumbs, senior management executives get huge bonuses. Companies should be ashamed of themselves!

this conversation hits hard being in hospitality, it's amazing how much I get yelled and how much pressure is placed on me to work as hard and as fast as possible for some ungrateful customer all the while earning less money than I would need to survive if I didn't have to pay rent

Thank you for mapping this out so clearly! I am a Social Worker. The Clients are wonderful...the management is always a Fascist Dictatorship.

I've been working since I was 15. I'm 47 now...and if I could go back in time.....

All the new opportunities and side hustles are great and can really improve your skill set, however none are easy and for most of them you are still trading your time for money. A lot of these “passive income streams” that people talk about are anything but passive I have tried a few. Investing in solid performing EFTs and transferring money into them bi weekly has helped. I am skeptical about real estate with all of these 1% down mortgages. I’m just tired I am working 50+ hours a week but feel like I should work more on my side hustles and all to pay bills, get out of debt and invest the little that’s left. I am grateful that I can make it because many around me can’t and it’s heartbreaking- it’s simply not ok.

It makes sense that traditional workplaces are like dictatorships, but not communist. They're more like capitalistic dictatorships. Communism would advocate for common ownership of the means of the production, the working classes revolting against the rich, and in the end wanting a stateless and equal society. They critique the capitalists which make up traditional workplaces where everything is about profit and consumption. Secondly, the solution of being an internet entrepreneur to solve the problem of pay not meeting living costs is probably only useful to a small number of people. It's an incredible amount of work for most people to make more money as an entrepreneur than they'd get from a traditional workplace. Usually it's also a totally different skillset. You are right though in that it would remove you from being in a dictatorship and put you in a position of being a full on capitalist.

These always come out on my lunch break and it makes it hard to go back to work haha. Great job on these recent videos, I've gotten a lot out of them and it sounds like other people have too. Going to throw this out into the ether in the hopes that it might happen, but I think a conversation between you and Dr. K of Healthy Gamer fame would be incredibly interesting, would love to see you on his stream one of these days. Have a great rest of your week Stephen!

because, at the end of the day, you're tired, poor, lonely, weak and exhausted, on your way to your third job so you can feed yourself so you can work more. And more. And more. This lifestyle is deadly and sad. No wonder people stop embracing it.

why should i be a debt slave on their tax plantation? it's quite obvious how this world is being run, and by whom. i'm so done with all of this shit...

Learning all of this at 22 has been a trip, but I'm trying to wrap my head around this to reach that fulfillment

I don’t know what to do other than numb ourselves to continue, i still want to meet all my obligations but there’s this general tiredness and ennui, knowing how much we stress ourselves for what? Saw so many people turn into deregulated adults, with no support or recognition, they just become more bitter and they receive less understanding as a result of the expectations re work (old school). It’s hard if your nervous system is disregulated, you become the worst version of you and the feeling is compulsive. We need calm and stillness to regulate and become “ourselves again.” Horrible cycle. Took my parents away from us, and our grandparents before them. Thank you for this video 🫡🙏

It is rare that I get introduced to a new way of thinking about something that is true. Thank you

Being a former canoeing guide in northern Ontario I always viewed Canada as a homesteading paradise where simple people could obtain cheap land, build a small resort, or even live off of the land to some extent, although to be realistic there are miserable job opportunities in the Canadian north where many of these mom and pop hunting/fishing lodges are located. But then in tandem with this northern sportsman’s paradise there are the southern cities where housing is insane and jobs are hard to find owing to how relatively more organized the Canadian workforce is compared to what we have here in the states. But if conventional middle class existence becomes unobtainable then people instinctively go into a sort of avoidance paradigm where they become parasites if they’re not enterprising enough to become black market operators of some sort. For instance, how much of electric generating capacity is now devoted to black market marijuana grow ops? I’ve seen figures that suggest it’s equal to the amount of power devoted to manufacturing aluminum cans, which of course is phenomenal, or something on the order of 3% of all electric capacity.

9 to 5 is modern day slavery, don't know how people can do it, I refuse to do it

Many people today make good money on KZfaq - but that income flow is totally controlled by Big Tech, and it will quickly be eroded away. KZfaq will continue to take a bigger chunk of that income flow, until your portion is negligible.

Thank you. This gave a voice to something I've felt for a long time. I've worked both in employed jobs and self-employed. While the former gives some sense of stability and regularity financially, it's generally very stifling and boring. Self-employment is extremely freeing, but also stressful. I'm learning how to work through my blocks that make the self-employment stressful.

Does anyone have the cliff notes? I work 50 hours a week and need him to get to the point.

Billionaires and trilliardaires may want not to work besides they will have to know about finances and work for themselves. Medium class or the poor don’t have any option unless they decide to leech on their parents or spouse - and this ends bad. Yesterday I was watching a case where the parents sued the leech of 30 years old. The judge put an end on that. Little by little the immobility addiction of the guy passed and he succeeded. Even his body posture changed completely. He got a visible good self-esteem.

One of your best and most inspirational videos, Stephen. 👍🏻

I completely agree with your premise, but the labels are wrong IMO. That's not communism, and that is clear to see reading communist works from Marx. I always love your videos, keep it up! I believe the more accurate descriptor of what modern corporatism is, is techno-feudalism or corporate-feudalism. The lords and ladies being the board and shareholders, the peasants being the employees that work outside the headquarters, knights being the workers who work in the corporate headquarters (their castle), the the king/queen is the government. The king and lords are in bed with eachother (presidents and CEOs), the CEOs pay their knights slightly better (corporate salaries), and the peasants (everyone else) gets the scraps barely enough to afford 1 tiny home if they work their entire day JUST for food and housing.

Keep in mind too there is a great disparity between office type jobs, menial jobs (fast food), and skilled trade jobs. Trade type jobs get tons of applicants, the problem there is lack of applicable skills due to lack of training or trade schooling vs regular college.

I own a biz (23 years now) with staff. Biz isn’t the enemy of an employee, the Gov is. In Canada gov is a 50% partner in a biz - when that’s not enough for the gov, they “audit” and pick your pockets more. Biz would love to pay employees more. Most biz owners I speak with agree. Small biz is expected to pay same rates large corps do - and most do, hitting the viability limit. Products services would need to go up, but then competitiveness drops. Keep supporting Amazon everyone.

Working your own land feels great

If you refuse to work... what will you do when its retirement time? Social security (even though it is very little money) comes to those who work

Nope, people are just growing sick of working twice as hard as their parents for half as much gain, while looking back at the stories of how their grandparents bought homes, went on vacations, owned cars, and led real, middle-class American lives on a single family income.

The problem with this egalitarian ideal comes to light if you ever manage people or teams. Everyone hypothetically wants ownership, decision making responsibility, a stake, a say….but when push comes to shove, 80-90% of people fail at it when things go bad. Yeah, it’s easy to take group votes when everything is great. But once the business starts having issues or something breaks or you get sued or the software needs to be changed or even you needing to move offices, suddenly everyone wants to delegate the decisions (or worse, only the unpleasant ones) to other people. And everyone says “I wouldn’t do that” until it happens to them

great video. i love your style

This is a good and pretty important video. It helps show a way out of a much more constricting life, but the primary reason our lives are like this is because of mismanagement of our systems under lousy or corrupt governments. If we do wish to continue on our trajectory, this video works as a good base for how to survive and understand it, but what we should be doing is taking action to change the system itself. Vote, inform yourself, inform others, and if you find that the system itself isn't what it should be, society is made of individuals, and if we choose so we can form new ones and replace the old. I don't see why we should continue living in a system that breaks us and everyone around us, if there was ever a time for change it is now.

After COVID-19 hysteria, people are finding better ways to work, and finding ways to spend time with their families. Traditional jobs are now considered modern slavery which makes a creation of remote jobs and alternative jobs that suit you better somehow to fulfill your style of life

First video from you that popped up on my feed and I got to say I'm hooked. Great Video, love how you present your information and your tone of voice.

No one wants to work? Me and many other people have applied to hundreds of listings just to be turned down, gaslight, ghosted, or even straight up scammed! NO ONE IS HIRIING!!!

What's the point of working if you can't make a living?

Yep Covid allowed me to move away from a city center, get cheaper housing with tons of land, and now I work from home for multiple companies with fair less effort than working in an office for one company.

Used to be a starter job could pay starter rent. Now it can't. If that's "work", no point doing it. So don't. Government numbers about what they think inflation is, never really align with what most of us experience in real life anyway; I dunno why they publish those numbers. Good point bringing up all this.

Was basically fired from a warehouse for seeing my family after working all summer, and for not wearing their ushanka-hat.

I create things and sell, I make money by myself. I wont work a 9-5 and will never be a slave for someone else. I control what I do and love it. Also, saving my sanity is more important than working a matrix driven job that I'd hate. 9-5s aren't for me. Some people look down on that but I dont care.

My answer to this is simply that a balance has somewhat shifted back to the general labor workforce, meaning employers have been forced into atleast reconsidering wages for the lower income labor positions. That's literally a whole other discussion on it's own, but an important and interesting one altogether though

France, 2024: You attend a job interview with 4 years of experience on your CV, a top 5 business school degree, and a batch of expensive certifications. The HR representative starts yelling at you, claiming you are TOO JUNIOR even for a junior position, and she estimates your experience as only 1 year. She even goes so far as to say “juniors are wasting my time” (quote).

Thank you very much for this video. This is what I've been thinking for the few months.

You as an employee cannot do anything regarding your company leaders unless you are given that right by whoever the owners are. If it is a publically traded company you can buy part of it and be a board member or buy all of it just like Elon and twitter. At the end of the day as a worker if you don't like it you walk away and if you have enough resources you start your own company and structure it however the F you want Being private means you have tyrannical privileges restricted by whatever the local laws allow Either stay working there and follow instructions or buy a stake and challenge decisions or found something for zero and rule it yourself

So helpful to see the workplace for what it actually is!!!❤

I am that 'older' generation. I am happy to see folks putting their foot down and are pushing back against toxic exploitive employers. I have been working in these environments and I am appalled at how bad employers have gotten. When I was younger, I was able to always put a roof over my head on minimum wage jobs. This economy is ridiculous. Keep fighting back, set up FU income, find other solutions for living situations. Look globally. This economy is NOT the same as when I was young.

In 2019 I was working for Anheuser Busch via Werner, hauling in a day-cab; $70k job. 2020 rolls around and on January 3rd, staff hands everybody a waiver that says, "I hereby acknowledge that I will be accepting 8 unpaid vacation days (5 personal - 3 sick) upon reception of this announcement; replacing the initial 13. Mind you, I was working 6 days a week; 12p-12a every day. I signed it and planned to quit by Summer's end. I actually ended up quitting in June because I had already exhausted my unpaid vacation trying to move into my first home out of town. The companies reasoning for the reduction in vacation time, was that there were 120 employees and every day they had around 15-20 call-offs. After speaking to many of my coworkers about the issue, I guarantee you that they lost more employees than they would have initially kept. They already had a roster of 120 drivers with 150 trucks.

Now it makes sense as to why it feels terrible and why things are the way they are with the same problems and issues across the workplace spectrum.. I've been saying for the last few years that it's not that people don't want to work..it's that people no longer want to work at these same old places for the same old people again..enduring the same old endless abuse, neglect and various workplace problems that are never solved but are appearing more and more intentionally created ... they want to work on their own terms or somewhere that is better for their mental and physical well being.

Every generation has made this claim. I am 64 and I think people DO want to work, but they'd like a job with wages they can live on, and for employer who gives a crap about the people who work for them. What I make now, my father used make and it was considered very high pay and he supported a family of 5 on it and my parents owned their home. I can't buy a home. Even if I could, I could never afford the monthly payments let alone have 80K for a down payment. It isn't the same world. The people (mostly in my age group, sorry to say) who claim the younger generations (as a whole) are lazy need to shut up.

1.Taxes/terrorisation by the IRS. 2.Regulations/Legal risks. 3. Welfare -why work, when the government will give me other people’s earnings for nothing more than my vote?

I definitely don't want to work anymore. Dealing with companies is exhausting. I'm looking to simplify my life going forward and work only as much as I absolutely need to.

I've never thought of this topic through this lens before. Very interesting. Thanks for always sharing your perspective and teaching us something new.

This was brilliant. As you said, it puts into words the quiet discontent felt by many across the world.

Keep it up Steve. 🥳 This is the content the people deserve ✨

It fills me with hope that so many people start understanding the mechanics of the system we live in. When I start to talk about similar issues at my workplace noone understands, I seem like a crazy person to them.

Definition of work. If I'm doing something I don't want to be doing that's work!

You've confused capitalism with communism. What you described is a capitalist workplace.

Why "No One" Wants to Work Anymore - Often working overtime for no additional money or compensation due to poor organization, managing skills, staff etc. - Often underpaid to the point most jobs pay around minimum wage salaries - Bosses forcing you to do work outside of the one you've signed to contract on. - Bosses not treating you as a human being but more of like a robot with infinite energy and no needs for personal time. - Bosses who straight up intend to exploit you because they feel like they own you for paying your salary. - Everything in their mother costs a lot of money. Food, Rent, Electricity, car fuel etc. - If you're in a job where you have to deal with customers you are basically forced to deal with overgrown children. People nowadays are petty, nasty, arrogant, impudent and the list goes on. The people who deal with such customers are often paid minimum wages and the bosses say "nobody wants to work anymore". I had an 80 year old elderly lady tell me "can you get that X,X,X from the store" and I was a kind cashier that just wanted to help an old lady I did so. One day she came in the store. Bought a single bread and frozen meatball soup, didn't wait for the receipt as she usually does and I didn't care since I had more important work than nurture her ass. Few hours later she came here and made a whole scandal and blamed me how I was stressing her the whole time and how I should be fined for not giving her the receipt. The fking meatballs were 3$. I was holding my temper since I was with my boss's kid and he had to deal with her before. So yeah, gl having people who enjoy working when there are such imbeciles around.

My pay is OK but I've probably been slowing down due to exhaustion accumulated in the last 10 years. It seems that around 2010 companies decided the best way to boost profits was to cut their work force/take more work per worker, which was effective for some years but then reached a point of negative returns, where productivity per worker is actually dropping due to workers being so overwhelmed they give up, and also less capacity for specialised workers who are efficient at certain tasks -- companies in engineering consulting seem increasingly only able to afford generalist professionals with a wide range of experience now.

Spot on. This is another reason why having a wealth of companies to choose from is vital for any semblence of freedom in your working life. This way to conceptualize it also shows the importance of having a variety of state governments to choose from as well. WIthout the ability to move freely in the world and have open systems of immigration then freedom is an illusion. Notice how this is the exact opposite of what our overlords are attempting to bring about with their "one world" government. We are moving dangerously close to a dystopian nightmare.

But the people are make a living from the information revolution are not wholly independent or sovereign. They rely on platforms. And their messaging is influenced by the policies, terms, and conditions of the platforms.

"the leader is pointed by an oligarchy" This is correct. If you own a company, you can replace the "leader" any time. This might be necessary, if the company is not run well. I don't know how this could possibly organized differently, because democracy does not work in companies. It it not meant to be a working concept for private business. If you compare this to your family. If you have children and each time you pass by a ice cream shop: would you really want to have you children vote on the purchase of ice cream. Someone has to make these decisions. Someone is in charge and has the responsibility.

we`ve grown up into the hustle culture thinking we need to work our asses off but for what? having a job is so overrated as someone in the comments already said, it`s a form of slavery. I understand we need to work to survive but we don`t need jobs.

Very well done. Perfectly explained with calm, precision, deep thinking. A little masterpiece.

We want a 4 day work week like the rest of the world

Thank you so much! The ONE BIG WHY... can't WAIT!

If one is to be forced to run an endless hamster wheel to gain the means to live, better to do it for oneself than to enrich another