alt Hacker News> took an enormous physical toll on the body
Just a nitpick, but our bodies are meant for labor. You grow ever stronger and more capable over time. Amish, for an extreme example, work exceptionally hard and eschew most modern medicine and healthcare options, yet live very long and healthy lives with substantially lower rates of cancer and various other disease than the general population. * Sitting at a desk for 8+ hours a day, for decades, is what takes an enormous physical toll on the body.
* - I wanted to give a life expectancy here, but it turns out there is no particularly good life expectancy measurement for them. This [1] study is the closest I found, where it looks like the 50% survival rate for men/women who hit at least 30 years of age, is a bit higher than 80 for women, and a bit lower than 80 for men.