You call it fair cause you benefit from people getting screwed over.

Nice meme!

There's no right to recreation, but there IS a natural duty of any decent society to maintain a condition of being in which anyone who works hard can achieve any reasonable goal.

Ergo, I posit that someone is being exploited if they are worked unfairly, but that people exploit the system if they expect to reap an easy life without work.

What that actually looks like ain't exactly clear to me, but what we have in America today is not quite it that's for sure.

There's no right to recreation"

Says who?

Another way of reading that: People should not expect to have something handed to them if they could have earned it. Doesn't mean we should all work 80 hour weeks every week of the year, but we just can't become a culture whose primarily goal is to avoid responsibility.

"When the Athenians sought to live in a society that freed them from responsibility, they were no longer free." -Edmund Burke (I think)

My point is that we just need to be careful that we don't make the pursuit of pleasure the center of our lives. I worry that society is becoming too entertainment-focused and that people are increasingly viewing work as something which needs to be avoided in order to live well. Obviously this is a blanket statement, but there's a ring of truth to it.

What if a person works conscientiously and regularly, but not hard?

Part of working hard IS working conscientiously and regularly. But there will be times where you'll have to go above and beyond, either for yourself or the organization you work for, and that is a part of life. 👍

I just think work is overvalued in our society. Not saying that work isn't valuable, or that people shouldn't work, but that people in general work too much and too hard, and that some jobs shouldn't be done.

I agree that we are workaholics in this country. But I also think working hard and well at something is the only way we can make a difference/do something meaningful (if something is worth doing, it's worth doing well!). I also know that people will happily do just about any job if fairly compensated, so I dunno if I could think of a job that isn't worth doing.

Honestly I think the jobs that people look down on are often more worthwhile than more coveted roles. A garbage man or pro window cleaner can just go to work and go back home to their family, rather than always be working from their phone or laptop and never be feeling like they can't 'get away' from a work call or 'one more email' or whatnot.

Oh no, collecting garbage and washing windows are good, honest work. By jobs not worth doing I'm talking things like producing cocaine, trafficking child prostitutes, or stock market speculation.

Obviously if there is hard work, there must also be work that isn't hard. People who do easy work that contributes to society deserve more respect than people who do hard work that harms people, wouldn't you agree?

I mean...when the government isn't keeping the stock market afloat artificially then it's totally fine to play with it. But I would never say that criminal activity is honest work. It's scumbaggery.

I agree with your premise, but would add that there is hard work that also contributes to society. Construction is more difficult than coding for a Silicon Valley company, but both bring us value.

I tried to think of a good Breaking Bad meme but couldn't...