Those who are able to retire in later middle age are
bored, because they have not learned how to fill
their time when they are at liberty, and such interests
as they once had apart from work have dried up.
Yet these are the exceptionally fortunate: the majority
have to work hard till old age, with the fear of
destitution always before them, the richer ones dreading
that they will be unable to give their children
the education or the medical care that they consider
desirable, the poorer ones often not far removed from
starvation. And almost all who work have no voice
in the direction of their work; throughout the hours
of labor they are mere machines carrying out the will
of a master. Work is usually done under disagreeable
conditions, involving pain and physical hardship.
The only motive to work is wages: the very idea that
work might be a joy, like the work of the artist, is
usually scouted as utterly Utopian.
But by far the greater part of these evils are
wholly unnecessary. If the civilized portion of mankind
could be induced to desire their own happiness
more than another's pain, if they could be induced to
work constructively for improvements which they
would share with all the world rather than destructively
to prevent other classes or nations from stealing
a march on them, the whole system by which the
world's work is done might be reformed root and
branch within a generation.
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