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How We Define ‘Work’ Is How We Define Humanity
Labor, money, and the distinction between “wants” and “needs”
“Work” is one of those commonsense ideas that we mostly never think to question. It dominates our lives to the extent that we forget it’s not a universal constant. Rather, how we think of it today is the product of cultural changes in the past. Examining the history of the concept and the ways it’s changed over time can help us think about how we might change it in the future.
At the beginning of the 21st century, we have two broad ways of understanding what work is: First, work is the thing you do so you can get stuff. Stuff, in this instance, is both the things you need (food, shelter, clothes) and the things you want (a Nintendo Switch, beer, a flat-screen TV, etc.). But the lines are not always clear in determining what qualifies as a want and what qualifies as a need.
When people talk about “welfare cheats,” they focus on people buying things beyond the bare necessities—as if poor people are somehow not entitled to feel the idle happiness of entertainment and connection.
During the height of the Syrian refugee crisis, footage showed trains leaving packed platforms and power boards festooned with improbable numbers of mobile phones. Some made the argument that no real refugee would…
