I saw a tweet by Ivanka Trump on Labor Day. It made me snort. HA! What does she know about any of this? She comes from a life of privilege.

But it was her final two words that made me cringe. Giving kudos for raising the next generation to be “American workers!” Ommigod I wanted to throw up.

Check this out, by David Graeber, who wrote Debt: The First 5000 Years and originated the Occupy meme, “We are the 99%”.

Most American Workers Are Slaves

Excerpt:

I’ve known since I was 16 years old that, if what an “adult” does is “go to work,” then I would never become an adult. Even at that early age, when I was still highly programmed to be an obedient girl, I knew with every fiber of my being that such “work” would kill me — kill my spirit.

Because this recognition was so very powerful, it generated a strong intent. An intent that generated my top priority, the freedom to be myself, to contribute to society in my own unique manner, to do my own authentic “work” by expressing my spirit fully into the world.

First, I got a Ph.D., in philosophy.

One year later I began to study astrology, a symbolic language that holds deep meaning for me. After three years I began to sharing it with clients, friends, and family. Mine has been a deeply satisfying profession.

Julian Assange, one of my heroes:

So for me: If this priority for spiritual freedom to pursue my own path necessitated that I live with little money, so be it. I would find out how. Solution? Live in a yurt! Which I did for 12 years. Live low, in any case, live below money as far as possible.

Thus did my early revulsion for wage slavery generate a profession and lifestyle that has borne fruit. In all my 75 years, the only “regular job” I ever held was during that boring, stultifying summer of my 17th year.

“Go to work!” NO. Be Yourself. Express Yourself. If everyone did that, just like the wild flora and fauna of the world do that, then, miraculously, and with a common sigh of great relief, humans would sink back into harmony with all of creation. 

And the need for “money” would disappear.