It’s true. You have to produce something the world wants. There is no such thing as a free lunch. Or rather, there is, and it’s called welfare, and it sucks.

This is the major difference between childhood and adulthood. When you are a child, society and your parents support you without requiring anything of you except good grades. These grades do not have to compete in an open market. They do not have to be something someone will trade for money.

But once you are an adult, you have to produce. You need to produce something you can trade.

Note that I am not saying everyone needs to be an artist, an artisan, or a craftsperson. What most people produce is labour, broadly speaking. The point I am trying to make is that merely being a good person is no longer enough. You have to contribute to the society that has carried you this far.

Modern life in the consumerist democracies does an excellent job of disguising this fact. Every single one of us benefits ftom the labour of thousands of people evety moment of our lives, and yet we will never see these people, let alone know them. This quasi-magical existence leads to a potent and compelling illusion of autonomy and independence. Because the modern consumer/citizen cannot see the intricate web of interdependencies that support them, it is easy for them to believe what they are told, which is that none of it matters as long as they pay for what they get, either directly or through taxation.

Given this pseudo-autonomy and the atomistic individualism that accompanies it, it is easy to lose sight of the existence of society entirely, and fall into the trap of thinking oneself as self-generating and self-sustaining. From that egocentric point of view, both paying taxes AND contributing labour to a society one takes entirely for granted like it is a natural phenomenon like gravity, seems intolerable and insane. One might as well work hard and pay taxes for the turning of the tide.

Nobody set out to make a society which produces such shortsightedness. It was the result of the honest pursuit of individualism.

Because of this blocking of our collective vision, people reach adulthood, step off the escalator they have been on without knowing it for their whole lives, and have no idea what to do with themselves. We train people for jobs, and for citizenship, but not for life.

That’s always seemed like a rather larger oversight to me.

I think every high school should teach a course in basic life skills, maybe with a faux-apartment somewhere in the school so you can show people how to do things like mop a floor, cook spaghetti, and pay a bill.

But I digress.

So yeah. You have to produce. That’s another thing kids should be taught. Sooner or later, you are going to have to give the world something in return for what you get. The free ride ends. You end up on your own.

Now, I am not saying any of this in a punitive or cynical way. Having to work for a living is not a punishment. Acknowledging the truth that adulthood happens is not cynicism.

What I am saying is that you don’t just need a job to pay the bills. You need to contribute to society in order to be a happy and fulfilled. Deep within every human being is the need to contribute. It is as much a part of us as the need for romantic love and the desire for the recognition of our peers. We need meaningful labour.

A lot of people waste a lot of their youth trying to avoid this truth. It does not help matters that our culture is saturated with an immature “work sucks, school sucks” message. Everything in the culture makes it seem like anyone with any sense should hate work and long for the so-called “life of leisure”.

This sentiment is understandable. But it’s ultimately destructive to people’s life. They go into the world of work with this attitude that work sucks and it’s something you just have to endure, just like school, and it keeps people from making the best of their situation and find what pleasure and fun can be found no matter how low-status their job is.

Admit it… if you met someone who said they loved their job at McDonald’s, you would think there was something wrong with them,. wouldn’t you? Like maybe they’re mentally special, or crazy, or just plain the dullest person on planet Earth.

But why? They’re happy. Why is that so wrong? Why is it only permissible to enjoy a tiny, select percentage of jobs? And for the rest of us, it’s mandatory misery?

It’s because we view work as punishment, even imprisonment. The only jobs that we are allowed to enjoy are the ones that seem, at least from afar, like they would be so easy and/or fun that they are not even really work. More like getting paid to play.

But like I have said before, no such job exists. For anyone. No matter what job you get, even your dream job (like, for me, writer for TV), it will cease to be play the moment you have to do it when you don’t feel like it.

There is no such thing as mandatory fun.

Instead of letting the “work sucks” message go unchallenged, we should send kids the message that work can be fun and there’s nothing wrong with that. I am picturing something like the old Sesame Street bit about “who are the people in your neighborhood?” with an emphasis on people who enjoy their jobs.

That way, they can grow up to be adults who can be happy with their life even if they didn’t get to be a rock star, astronaut, or even the guy who works the crane on construction sites. Even if they never get to be on TV.

I will talk to you nice people again tomorrow.