Why do we work so hard?
This will sound moralistic, and I don&#x27;t mean it that way, but I think this relates to our general lack of clear values as a society. With religion absent in many people&#x27;s lives, not much has stepped in to take up the slack and say &quot;what really matters is being a good person&quot; or &quot;what really matters is wisdom&quot; or &quot;what really matters is family&quot;. So we&#x27;re left with the messages we ARE getting, which are from a combination of advertising (what really matters is having a lot of money&#x2F;nice things), Hollywood (what really matters is being good at shit) and the news cycle (which focuses on careers and especially major careers). &quot;Mom gets home from work and has a fun late afternoon with her kids, spending no money and getting nothing much done&quot; isn&#x27;t a story we ever see upheld as a great, positive way to spend our time. So we pursue the things we do see people praising and talking about - promotions, money, milestones, important-ness.