Why do we work?
Why do we work? The first, most obvious answer seems to be that if we don’t work, we don’t eat. I heard someone say once that no one could starve to death in a developed society. Even if you decided to stop eating and die of starvation someone would find you and force you to eat. In general, though, “we” as a group, work to provide for ourselves (and for others who can’t or don’t work). We need more than food and water, of course. We also need clothing and shelter. Most of us need some form of transportation to get by or to get along in our communities. Most of us place a high value on health care. Education is important. Once those are all taken care of we seek out different forms of entertainment. All of this comes from the work that we do. We work to make a living and to have a life.
Why do we work in organizations?
Why aren’t we all subsistence farmers? Why don’t we go out into the woods, cut down enough trees to make a field, dig out all the roots, plant and grow all of our own food, harvest the grain, grind the flour, make the bread, make our own houses from scratch, make our own clothes, make our own shoes, dig a well to get water, and so on? Little House in the Big Woods offers a romantic vision but I don’t think any of us who are used to living in a neighborhood in a house with indoor plumbing and electricity and heat and air conditioning and a refrigerator and a freezer and transportation and the grocery store and restaurants and stores really would accept that kind of life.
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