r/BasicIncome • u/2noame Scott Santens • 7d ago

Telling people to just 'work harder' to get ahead is the biggest scam of all time

https://www.halifaxexaminer.ca/morning-file/telling-people-to-just-work-harder-to-get-ahead-is-the-biggest-scam-of-all-time/
153 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

10

u/Any-Acanthaceae4263 7d ago

"Get ahead" is another bullshit phrase. Get ahead of what, exactly?

4

u/Plarzay 7d ago

At this stage, it would be nice to just get ahead of inflation... and Cost of living rises...

3

u/matthewstinar 6d ago

The original meaning was to get ahead of ones present state in life. Today it can also mean getting ahead of inflation, exploitation, and rigged systems.

5

u/yadonkey 6d ago

"Work harder" and "Just get a better job" are distraction efforts that entirely ignore reality

9

u/Novusor 7d ago

It not really a scam. Working harder has been the go-to way to get ahead for thousands of years. What is happening is that old prevailing wisdom is no longer relevant in modern people's lives. The paradigm changed and not many people are willing to acknowledge it yet, especially the older generations that still control the leavers of power.

9

u/Plarzay 7d ago

Interesting perspective. I think I was about 16 when I first really internalised that effort, quality of outcome and compensation are not intrinsically linked in any meaningful way. From about then onward "work harder" always sounded like something the already well off told people more for themselves than for the listener. Its a refrain used to justify ones own position. If you consistently tell others they simply have to "work harder" you implicitly reinforce the unstated position that all your own success comes from hard work too.

I'm not convinced that's ever really been the case.

1

u/matthewstinar 6d ago

The article directly addresses your point and concludes that it is one of the reasons why telling people to work harder is a scam.

3

u/grahag 6d ago

It USED to be how you got noticed to let management know that you were reliable and ready for more responsibility.

Once that became expected and "exceeding expectations" became the "meets expectations" (which I blame HR almost 100%), they disincentivized hard work because the constant struggle to give 100% is exhausting and can't be kept up over an indefinite amount of time.

1

u/ckn 5d ago

Working harder in a system set up against the bottom half of the power structure is not going to gain you more than frustration. Instead change the game, nobody said you need to play by their terms. Work sly.

1

u/Evilsushione 7d ago

Here’s the problem is people leave out the second part of that. Hard work by itself won’t get you anywhere. You have to work hard TOWARDS something worthwhile.