The problem is having to work in the first place.

With the current system, most of us have no choice other than to become a wage slave or die.

There’s no separation, until you become the owner of entire structure and have others doing the work for you.

A cousin opened his business 20 years ago, some time ago, he said that he couldn’t do that in this moment, the space is already over saturated and with online shops from abroad he’s not really making much profit as he used to. How much that holds is a different matter, but what I wish to say is that “just start your own business” isn’t the relief valve.

I find work-life balance completely whacked concept to begin with, as I can’t dissociate myself while I’m going through the endurance and mental tests that work/liberal system forces on me on a daily basis. It’s what I struggling at the moment, as the reward of passing them is just maintenance with maybe occasional treat, if I am lucky.

What I tried to say is that your pay or constrained leisure time isn’t your personal failing, it’s the system that has seemingly increased the flow rate of extraction through its available means.

Nobody will pay you unless you are creating surplus value to them. If you have the means to sell your own thing, you are the one enjoying this value.

You might as well spend more hours running your own business. The way I see it is that it is mostly mind-numbing. Between the extra hours in commute, the fatigue, and the eventual drop in productivity, the biggest damage is to your own intellect, creativity and health.

Arguably you could be better off if you invest this time and energy to yourself. But this is still not fair. If you don’t have the resources, then you can only make a living by selling your own energy to somebody else. And your business might also fail, so you go bankrupt.

I really believe the solution to all this is unions. All the high-paying jobs have some union protection set up, hence they enjoy living wages and perks. It is only plain workers that haven’t any.

Owning a business is not the same as managing a business. Management is administrative labor, and is necessary, but the actual ownership of companies is in a tiny number of hands that work only when they choose to, on their own terms.

The alternative system is socialism, where production is collectivized, and run to suit the needs of society. We can reduce working hours this way when we are not working to fill an endless pursuit of profit and capital valorization, which gives us time to pursue human relationships, educate ourselves, and advance in our hobbies.

A good 9 to 5 is great if you can get it. Get on a union contract, secure good terms. It’s fucking excellent. But there’s a lot of 9 to 5s that are 7 to 9pms. Where bosses call you out of hours constantly. Where there’s no raises, no promotions and no rewards. Faced with the latter then yeah it’s go chase something better by trying to build a business or face financial nihilism.

But of course that’s only half the story. The other half is that there is an economy for people selling you the alternative. They make money on convincing you that no 9 to 5 is worth it. That you’re a beta cuck if you dare accept a traditional role on the corporate ladder.

Every time some kid gives up on college or bails on trade school to try and buy into crypto, Forex, AI chatbots, OnlyFans pimping, day trading, NFTs, drop shipping, Amazon AI publishing, memecoins or any other grift, scam or scheme - there is an army of Alpha, sigma, self made, self powered, un-tethered, outside of the matrix, big G scam artists selling the shovels to the goldrush.

They’re telling you, you’re not being conned, you just weren’t fast enough this time, not smart enough, you didn’t time the market right, buy my course I’ll show you what the insiders know, get ripped, get jacked, sleep longer, sleep less, get up early, never stop hustling, you got to secure the bag, you got to be a man, but not too much, get the girl, win the girl, stop chasing girls, be sharp, be blunt, be a hammer, be deft, be this be that so long get fucked fuck off I got mine get yours.

This is just really highly subjective. The US is a huge outlier since your social safety net sucks ass. Your life literally depends of your employer giving you health insurance but the rest of the world is also not that much better.

With the end of the udssr capitalism lost all motivation to proof that it can give workers a better life than communism so it started to become what it was destined to.

A 9-5 regardless of sector was guaranteed to give you a life worth living, your own house, sending your kids to college, a good pension, enough food and some luxeries. Helping the company succeed directly benefitted the worker and the worker could also often be PROUD of what they made collectivly. (obviously not true for all of human history, and we can obviously discuss the ethics of any production across time but true enough for this discussion and the time 9-5 started to be a thing)

Now all the money is going to the top, while you can still have a decent life in some sectors it is much harder. The dream of owning your home is out of reach for many, it feels like just surviving and not living. There is zero loyalty towards workers.

So a 9-5 today means giving away your lifetime to a heartless coporation doing shit that benefits no one and still die off a preventable diseas in your 2000 dollar roach infested apartment OR you can do odd jobs with less “security” and at least live your life before you meet the same end.

There are a lot of jobs you can do though that pay good enough money and are still flexible where you don’t feed the orphan crushing machine too much and are almost always in demand. You can work and travel, work in the event sector, hospitality or do something in the art sector. I know people managing weed farms getting high every day, traveling yoga teachers, artists who do odd jobs on the side or people who build their own small businesses where they don’t have to work that much anymore and so on and so forth. But it shouldn’t be on us to find meaningful work, the economy should work for us not the other way around.

I wish I could give you a magic trick but the reality is that under capitalism, if you’re not lucky enough to be born into riches or have powerful connections, then you’re pretty much stuck being a wage slave. There is no real alternative to selling someone your labor either for a 9-5 work or multiple part times etc. The only real way out of this is systemic change.

Communism.

No servant under you and no boss overhead.

I’ve only worked a 9-to-5 once in my life, as a temp. It wasn’t for me. Mostly I’ve been teaching and waiting tables, a little bartending as well. Since my kids entered school, being home at the same time they are has become my highest priority when choosing a job, and yeah, I sacrifice a little income potential and even work longer hours to make that happen, but there’s no substitute for the time I spend with them; that’s my highest good. And they would rather have time with me than more stuff.

What I’m saying is, you gotta do what works for you. There’s always more money to make but time runs out. I’d rather take my kids to the food bank together than pay for groceries without them, y’know? Even better is using that time to volunteer together at the food bank, so they see the importance of taking care of others; and also see that selling labor for cash and spending the cash isn’t the only way to get what you need.

Well, There is a range of options in my opinion. They range from immediate to long term futur. They range from achievable alone to mass mobilization.

• Reading how peoples sustained themselves during ww1 et ww2 ( start a garden, adopt chicken) but it does take more time and cost reduction is not immediate

• Having a library of thing is a way to help community project like a community garden to do the trick

• work in a cooperative, everyone is owning the workplace and having equal pay. It is not that we don’t produce enough, it is that capitalism is wastefull, the boss of your boss make 20 times what you do, is he 20 more productive that you?

• Help friends and family, they often have things in surplus, than can reduce waste and give away things for free as they exchange it

• Ask for help, you are not the only one struggling, like, we all are, i mean wtf. We all are struggling, we are not angry enough. You will be surprised what peoples are willing to do to help a stranger.

• you are struggling against a system that is quite happy to fine with you struggling, you know what will offer better pay and conditions? Join the army! You can die and torture yourself forever defending a system that put you in such a conditions in the first place.

• mobilize for political change, be creative! As long as you are 75% in accord with a movement, join it but do not compromise if the output is against the right of other people (except power structure like state, richs, or obviously privilegied people) lets be more equals !

If you can work from home, it already changes much about a 9 to 5 job.

If you own your own business, you get all of the profit (assuming there is any!). If you work harder/better, you are likely to earn more money.

For most standard jobs, that’s not the case and other people (who own the company you work for) make money off your work too.

It’s a risky business (heh) owning/running a business though, you don’t have any guarantee you will make money. But you will probably get a bigger proportion of any worth you are creating.