04.11.2026
S. was giving a lecture and I was listening attentively. I had told him that he was completely alienated and removed from this society and this was just more evidence of it. As he spoke, a light kindled in his eyes. He spoke passionately. Here is what he said:
In romance, in work, in life, we are getting less for doing more.
In the old days, you would get a job and it would be for life. You would at most have one degree or a master’s for your job. You would be paid enough to be able to buy a house and to maintain your family, with a few holidays a year and with savings. And now? Very few jobs are for life. You have to keep on training and training throughout your career. It is never enough. Most people are just scraping by due to the cost of living and most people certainly can’t buy a house or have substantial savings. Most people probably have more than one job to make ends meet. Just like with dating, the expectations have gone up. You are lucky even if you can get a job. You are getting less for doing more.
In the old days, you required very little qualifications to get into the culture industry and you had to do a lot less work. In the culture industry today, they are employing graduates and postgraduates for entry level jobs which pay less than jobs that don’t need any higher education qualifications. And then they are expanding the scope and nature of those entry level jobs, expecting the staff to do anything and everything. You are getting less for doing more.
Self-service machines? You are paying to work for the company that is selling you stuff, to do their admin for them. You are getting less for doing more.
With the NHS, once upon a time you actually used to get a medical service for your money that you had paid into tax. Now? You are supposed to diagnose and treat yourself. They will send you a bloodwork report that you have to decode yourself. You have to look after yourself after major surgery, like they did on my leg, even if you develop a bloodclot and could die, as happened with me. You are getting less for doing more.
People are doing this to each other as well in this type of society. In the old days, you would date someone and then get married. It was for life. You would get kids and a family out of it. What do you get now? There is very little expectation of a lifelong or even a long term commitment. Many people do not want to have children and start a family. And, at the same time, women’s expectations of men have gone up (which is one of the reasons that there are so many singletons at the moment, as no one can meet the expectations – this is what is cited in research about the increasing rise of the singleton). One can add that the actual cost of dating has gone up, which has made a love life unaffordable for some and that many people cannot even afford to you have children even if they are in a relationship. You are getting less for doing more.
In the do more for less economy, free time itself is suspect. If you don’t have that second job, if you are not spending your time investing, educating yourself, grasping and grasping away, putting all your time and effort into work and relationships and job application after job application, then you are wasting your time and your life away. Because you are not doing more for less.
It is a basic of economics and this exploitative culture that you should get the most out of someone without giving that much yourself. You should not have to pay a fair price for someone or for their labour. And this is the philosophy of do more for less. It is a ruthless economics. This economy is modelled upon the ideal of the slave, who works for almost nothing (he has to be fed and sheltered) but can be totally exploited.
People put up with these ruthless economics. They have sold themselves cheap. And it has made things worse for everyone, as we keep on selling ourselves for cheaper and cheaper. The buyers keep on profiting and profiting from it. They can expect more and more for less and less.
How does one escape from the increasing price of everything and the diminished reward? Can one escape? Will it just keep on getting worse and worse?
One has to remember the Benjamin Franklin story about the whistle (taken from Google AI):
When Benjamin Franklin was seven years old, his family and friends filled his pockets with copper coins on a holiday. He ran to a toy shop, but on the way, he saw another boy blowing a toy whistle. Charmed by the sound, young Benjamin offered every single one of his coins for it, and the boy agreed. He ran home, blowing his new whistle all over the house and annoying the rest of the family. When he showed it off, his family laughed and told him he had paid four times too much—handing over enough money to buy several such whistles. The realization stung so deeply that the shame of being cheated gave him more sorrow than the whistle gave him pleasure, causing him to throw it down and cry. Franklin later shared the story in a November 1779 letter to his friend Madame Brillon, coining the lifelong maxim: “Do not give too much for the whistle”. He applied the childhood lesson to adult behavior, noting that many people bring misery upon themselves by making false estimates of value.
