Jobs suck. That's not news, everyone has known that for a very long time. Sure, some jobs suck less than others, and some people genuinely enjoy their job, but generally jobs just suck. That's why they have to pay you to do them. But it takes more than a paycheck to make a job worth it. There was a time in America where the average person could work a job (albeit, often a sucky one) making a decent wage working only 40 hours a week, take a vacation every year, own a home, have a family and a community, all the things that make working a sucky job worth it. Over the last fifty years or so, many or all of the things that make working a sucky job worth it have slowly become less and less accessible to many people.
I am one of those people. I worked full time. It sucked, as many jobs do, but after putting in a full day's work I didn't go home to a wife and kids or a life that made me feel happy and fulfilled. I would drive my hour commute, which I hated, pick up take out or fast food, come home and watch TV, play video games, smoke pot, and drink. I'd go to sleep, wake up the next day and do exactly the same thing. I did that for years. I was absolutely miserable. People can't live like that.
If you'll notice, I used past tense. I have made a number of changes to my life over the past several years. One of the first things I did was quit my job. My life now isn't perfect, but it is improved. I drink less and I don't smoke pot any more. I also don't eat out hardly at all. I learned to cook and now I prepare nearly all of my own meals. I don't know that I'd say I'm happy, but I'm certainly less miserable.
Just one of the many, many examples of what you get when you build an entire society around the idea that making a profit is more important than anything else.
U.S. workers are less satisfied with nearly every aspect of their jobs than they were a year ago, survey finds ( www.cnbc.com )
Suicide Mission - What Boeing did to all the guys who remember how to build a plane ( prospect.org )