You don't have to have a "job", but then your "job" will be daily survival instead of paying for luxuries.
this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2026
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me_irl
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I'm happy to work, in fact I'd probably see myself out if I couldn't keep myself occupied.
What I want is for the effort and care I put into my work to be reflected back on to me and my life, I have watched businesses make millions of dollars off my work alone and I have been paid minimum wage for that work.
Bit fucken' unfair ain't it mate?
The image accurately depicts what would happen to 98% of all people: lying dead by the river, starved or killed or died by disease.
When I saw the pic all I could think of was the horrendous amount of ticks that person may now be hosting.
I've never heard of this rampant deadly disease that targets the unemployed.
Go work in an ER. The homeless are super susceptible to all kinds of diseases.
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when no one works, this person will not have blue jeans, shoes, socks, shampoo, toothbrush, underwear, shirt, soap, domicile, clean hygienic food, sanitary conditions, assisted travel... electricity for their internet points - just for starters.
Sure, when noone is forced into wage slavery, everyone will just waste away and do and produce nothing. That's why we all died out before humanity discovered various forms of servitude.
You seem to use 'slavery' and 'employment' as interchangeable. These are separate concepts.
No, they are not. Not in most countries.
‘Enslave me?’ you wonder. ‘Why, I am a free citizen!’
Are you free, really? Free to do what? To live as you please? To do what you please?
Let’s see. How do you live? What does your freedom amount to?
You depend on your employer for your wages or your salary, don’t you? And your wages determine your way of living, don’t they? The conditions of your life, even what you eat and drink, where you go and with whom you associate, — all of it depends on your wages.
No, you are not a free man. You are dependent on your employer and on your wages. You are really a wage slave.
The whole working class, under the capitalist system, is dependent on the capitalist class. The workers are wage slaves.
So, what becomes of your freedom? What can you do with it? Can you do more with it than your wages permit?
Can’t you see that your wage — your salary or income — is all the freedom that you have? Your freedom, your liberty, don’t go a step further than the wages you get.
The freedom that is given you on paper, that is written down in law books and constitutions, does not do you a bit of good. Such freedom only means that you have the right to do a certain thing. But it doesn’t mean that you can do it. To be able to do it, you must have the chance, the opportunity. You have a right to eat three fine meals a day, but if you haven’t the means, the opportunity to get those meals, then what good is that right to you?
So freedom really means opportunity to satisfy your needs and wants. If your freedom does not give you that opportunity, than it does you no good. Real freedom means opportunity and well-being. If it does not mean that, it means nothing.
You see, then, that the whole situation comes to this:
Capitalism robs you and makes a wage slave of you.
The law upholds and protects that robbery.
The government fools you into believing that you are independent and free.
In this way you are fooled and duped every day of your life.
But how does it happen that you didn’t think of it before? How is it that most other people don’t see it, either?
It is because you and every one else are lied to about this all the time, from your earliest childhood.
You are told to be honest, while you are being robbed all your life.
You are commanded to respect the law, while the law protects the capitalist who is robbing you.
You are taught that killing is wrong, while the government hangs and electrocutes people and slaughters them in war.
You are told to obey the law and government, though law and government stand for robbery and murder.
Thus all through life you are lied to, fooled, and deceived, so that it will be easier to make profits out of you, to exploit you.
from Now and After by Alexander Berkman, Chapter 3: Law and Government. Available to read for free here.
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I tried to explain to my Christian friend that (if) god created the world for us to live in. They didn't create the 5 days, 9-5 work week.
Having to ask your boss to get a day off should go against every human spirit. But no. Some people will bow down to the grind (just to complain every week about the 9-5)
Does anyone even have a 9-5 anymore?
Every job I have seen in the last decade is 8-5 with (optional/not-optional working) lunch.
Plus availability after hours...
Also 9-5 has never been true especially if you commute. Most jobs are 8-5 or longer plus commute…..
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You can, you just have to step outside the bounds of what the system says you should do, which is not a statement about the legality of one's path but rather one's ability to not be a lemming. Figure out how to break free. I figured out how to generate massive amounts of attention. The FBI said no, I gotta have education first. But y'know, what I'm saying is, if you know how to generate 100k views on a profile per day, or juggle, or write 2k-7k words a day without AI or drugs, well, those are examples of things that can open doors you don't see because you're looking at the world the way you've been programmed. And if you figure out how to do a buncha stuff like that together for a good purpose, you get used in bigger picture shit, because our culture is engineered.
Man, you shoulda been here. The ground was full of stuff to eat, the air was full of stuff to eat, you could drink all the water. Sometimes we wouldn't eat much for a few weeks, but we'd dance and take drugs and play games and have crazy sex to get through it. And ofc, we always had beef jerky.
Oh, and we did this all day with our best friends, who we never had to leave. It was pretty sweet.
But hey, now there are big pretty churches and supermarkets full of only half-poisoned food and billionaires and AC. Though, the air hurts, the sun hurts, the water hurts, and everything is mostly dead. So, that's a trade-off. How's your childhood best friend doing?
itt: capitalist bootlickers
Fuck "sometimes", I wish that all the time.
You don't have to work. But you also won't have food, shelter, and Lemmy.
Antibiotics. I really like antibiotics. If I had to choose between antibiotics and internet, I'd choose them.
This world has a massive lack of frolicking. Our numbers are way down on that front and it shows.
We could have it, if we grouped up and fought for it. Free humanity from the burden of unwanted labours.
We're all like minded here but the reality is that some people want work as distraction from their personal lives.
Sometimes??
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