PhiloPsycho Freedom

Money. Something that everyone wants and nobody has enough of, it seems. But what is the end for such a drive? Ultimately, I'd argue that people are doing this for happiness, at least in western society. We use money as a representation of resources, opting to trade it instead of actually trading a resource itself. This is relatively obvious, but I think people forget that this paper-ish cotton is nothing more than a symbol of goods and services, with  no inherent value in and of itself. Without anyone to trade with, this paper will help you no more, and probably less, than toilet paper.

Thinking about that leads me to the people who have a life goal of earning their first million by X age. This seems to be entirely missing the point of things. Why do we work? Is it simply to get this symbol in exchange for our time? Is that the ultimate purpose of doing labour? I'd argue that it isn't. Lately, I've taken to looking at work through a more Buddhist economic's perspective; we work for three main purposes: give a man a chance to use and develop his skills; enable him to overcome his ego-centeredness by joining with others in working toward a common goal; and to bring forth the goods and services needed for an existence. Looking at it this way seems to be much more satisfying for everyday work than the standard, modern western economists look of simple costs and benefits. From the western economists perspective, it would seem that the conflicting goals of the employer and the worker would lead to this extreme: the employer would like outputs without any workers; the workers would like income without any work. But, to approach work in such a perspective seems to be destroying the enjoyment and necessity of work, reducing it down to nothing more than a menial task that needs to be overcome; a necessary evil.

Our history, as a species, has been almost entirely comprised of work. The line between leisure and work was so fine that it was almost nonexistent; In pre-industrialization eras, you worked in order to survive, and you learned to find some sort of purpose and enjoyment from whatever work you did. You were also the sole proprietor of your work, enabling you to start and stop your work day whenever you saw fit, suffering any consequences that were to be had from working too little or too much.

An excess in either direction is bad. If we have all work and no play, we have no meaning; No time to reflect, or grow from our experiences. Furthering this line of thought, if we work in a task that is challenging in neither the physical or mental realm, we will gain nothing from the experience other than money. Many of us who have had part time jobs will be familiar with such jobs, where we gain nothing but cold cash for our efforts. We end up becoming resentful, lazy, pessimistic and cynical about the future of our lives in work, which may lead to be a self-fulfilling prophecy in future work endeavors.

Conversely, If we have no work and only leisure, this can be just as bad. Without the time to hone our skills with some form of direction, we are left to toil in obscurity, or to do nothing at all. This can lead to a lack of direction in life, depression, and isolation/feelings of loneliness (caused by being home alone all the time while your friends and family are at school/work).

Bottom line to me: we're missing the point of work if we're doing it solely for money. Work can both be the shackles that keep us from developing, as well as the catalyst that enables us to reach self-fulfillment.