Although I don’t know that I agree with some of what CrimethInc folks tends to believe I could get behind a good amount of it here at least (and you can listen to the audio version here).

Here are some highlights:

We know our lives could be so much more if we could shed the baggage of wage labor and start using our time and energy and resources for the things that really matter. The Ex-Worker springs from our desire to undermine the world of work rather than scrambling to find a better place within it. The CrimethInc. Ex-Workers Collective comprises various projects and individuals who are committed to this vision. And that’s why we decided to focus this episode on Work and the Anarchist Critique of Capitalism.

…

But ultimately, we don’t think this system is in anyone’s best interest, when none of us get to choose our activities based on the values that matter most to us rather than what is profitable or marketable.

From the conversation “at the cafe”:

Alanis: Sure. But is that our only choice? Being miserable, or being broke and miserable? I know we’re not the only ones who feel this way. Who doesn’t wish they could spend their time the way they wanted to? If you ask me, the problem is work itself.

At one point they have a pretty good back and forth on why even when work may be fulfilling in some sense it can still be frustrated by a lack of autonomy:

Friend: Well, even if our jobs aren’t productive in any useful way, at least for some people, work can be fulfilling.

Clara: Let me tell a story. My dad worked programming computers all his life; he knew since he was a kid that he loved computers, he went to school for it, and did it every day for decades. But when I was growing up, he’d come home frustrated from work every day and over dinner he’d gripe about his lazy coworkers, his idiot bosses, all the ways the management made his life harder… He was clearly unhappy. But the weird thing was, if you ever asked him outright, he’d always say, “oh yeah, I love my job.”

Friend: Why?

Clara: I never understood that, until I realized that his job turned activity that he loved into work that he hated. If he could have done what he always wanted to do on his own terms, instead of following orders from a company motivated only by profit, he could have found fulfillment. Instead, in order to support our family, he was trapped in this exasperating job that soured him on the thing he used to enjoy most.

And here are some of the closing lines:

Friend: But… sigh. Fine, work sucks, but we can’t all just stop working and do nothing!

Clara: Not working doesn’t mean doing nothing. It means doing things because they matter, not because they’re profitable. Think what we could accomplish if we were free to use our time and energy how we wanted to instead of going to work!

Alanis: The bottom line is simple: we all deserve to make the most of our potential as we see fit, to control our own destinies. Being forced to sell these things away just to survive is miserable and tragic.