>> for some, it's just a paycheck.

> What is wrong with just wanting to work for money?

Imagine a society where your work was an opportunity for you to provide products/services for your community, where you could earn a reputation for craftsmanship and caring, and where the real value was in the social ties and sense of social worth-- your community cares for you just as you care for it, and selfish assholery has high costs leading to poverty.

Now imagine a society where the only measure of social worth is a fiat currency, and it doesn't matter how you get it, only matters how much you have. Selfish assholery is rewarded and actually caring leads to poverty.

Which society would you rather live in? Which society is more emotionally healthy?

So the question is, is our current society the one we want to live in? If not, how do we move it closer to what we want?

Ethically? Nothing.

Socially and emotionally? It's brutal. For both the employee and society in general.

Spending almost half their waking hours not caring is not good for people.

So I believe it actually worse that the article makes it out to be.

Currently AI "solutions" being implemented in places like call centers are often technical solutions attempting to pave over organizational problems. Many IT solutions are like that. We refuse to fix the underlying problems, so we layer software on top, so we won't notice the stupidity below.

IT companies will happily take the money and write the code, broken as it might be, because the real problems aren't actually resolved. That to me is a problem. Companies needs to be way better at saying no, and offer help address the underlying issues instead, even if they aren't technical in nature.

> What is wrong with just wanting to work for money?

Nothing. In fact, I envy people who can and wish I could. Consider it one of my largest flaws.

> You know, when I was young, I was able to rent an apartment while being a cashier in a grocery store.

You still can almost everywhere outside of places like SF? I just spot-checked some data, and in Minneapolis for example currently available apartments are comparable to what they were when I was looking 10 years ago, cashier wages have gone up 45%, and that often comes with healthcare benefits now. It's not an especially wealthy life, but a single person should be very comfortable (that's a comparable hourly wage and apartment cost to what I had delivering pizza at some other part of my life, and I lived comfortably and was able to save up to splurge on a nicer used Miata and the down payment for a small house).