Trading life for a paycheck
The art of self-destruction
I find it amusing how they keep selling us success these days.
A stable job, a bank account with dizzying numbers, exotic vacations to absurdly luxurious destinations like Dubai (does anyone actually enjoy that unbearable heat?), a shiny Tesla. What else? A big house in a neighbourhood in your species habitat? I could continue, but you know, everyone would say it's a dream come true.
Well, let me tell you something: it's a nightmare disguised as a dream, but some are so blinded by the glitz that they don't even see it.
The problem with this "successful model" is that it comes at a brutal cost that no one wants to mention: your time, your health, your sanity. You end up sacrificing yourself on a modern altar that even the demanding Aztec gods wouldn’t have approved of. And for what? To accumulate more things—things you can’t take with you. Pharaohs built pyramids and filled boats for the afterlife, but none of it went with them. Still buried in the desert. So, do you really believe your Tesla will?
How nice it would be if we could exchange those consumer tickets for something that really matters, like time, freedom, or simply the possibility of breathing without feeling like a steamroller runs over every morning.
I'm fascinated by the masochism disguised as ambition that many display with such pride. Working twelve hours a day, ruining your spine, losing touch with your friends, watching your relationship crumble because you arrive home so exhausted you barely recognize yourself in the mirror. All that to obtain a sum that only impresses those who are also trapped in the same infernal circle.
Don't they realize? The trap of the model isn't in the work itself, but in how it traps you, swallows you, and then leaves you with no way out.
The irony here is that this system theoretically gives you the ability to enjoy "the good life". It gives you vacations, gives you luxuries, gives you the possibility to afford expensive hobbies, but what it doesn't give you is the time or energy to enjoy them. It's like having a feast in front of you when you're no longer hungry. Work takes care of stripping you of the vitality necessary for anything other than working.
It's a perverse cycle: you work to earn more, but you work so much that you destroy yourself, and then, in your few free moments, you try to use what you've earned to "enjoy" life. By the time the moment arrives to savor that luxury that cost you so much, you're too tired to even notice the taste.
And there's the dilemma. You know that if you continue down that path, you'll end up without health, without relationships, without meaning. But getting out isn't easy either. It's not just about quitting. Sure, there's always the option of "I'm tired, I'm leaving everything and going to a cabin in the woods." To Montana, like the Unabomber, to Sri Lanka, like Arthur C. Clarke, or to the beaches of Thailand, like more than one disillusioned European.
But let's be realistic, few are willing to abandon everything for a supposed mystical retreat in a cabin or a distant destination.
The real trap of this model is that finding a way out without burning all bridges is almost impossible. The jobs that consume you don't leave you with mental or creative space to plan an escape that doesn't involve jumping into the void.
The creative energies you'd need to design a plan B are hijacked by the very job, which ensures you don't have them available.
So, what to do? Keep dragging yourself until the final collapse or jump off the moving train without a parachute? Neither option sounds very promising, does it?
And here's where the key lies in something so simple it's scary: prevention. It's almost a cruel joke how obvious it seems. You shouldn't get into these traps in the first place. There's no need to get into a job that, in the long run, will destroy you. The problem is that many don't see it coming until it's too late.
The first signs are there, but we're idiots, so trapped in the illusion that "everything is fine" or "this is temporary" that we ignore the warning signs. I wonder if that camel-worthy perseverance isn't the result of traumas carried over from childhood...
The wisdom, if any remains in this society of work addicts1, lies in recognizing those first signs and pivoting before you find yourself trapped. I'm not telling you a new story, or a great secret of life. Again, this is so obvious it's embarrassing to have to write it. But here we are, thousands of people sacrificing their bodies, their relationships, and their peace of mind for a supposed success that deep down doesn't even interest them.
The most tragic thing is that many only realize when they're already too old, too tired, or too sick to change. They reach retirement (if they get there) as decrepit bodies and realize that all the accumulated money doesn't buy back lost time.
What irony, they have all the material resources but lack the most valuable resource: life itself.
So, the real question is: how long are you going to keep deceiving yourself? Because life isn't a race to collapse, even if they sell you otherwise. And the worst part is that you know it, you feel it every morning when the alarm goes off and it weighs more than the whole world—or your fat ass.
Most won't change. They'll stay there, clinging to the job that destroys them, because inertia is more powerful than fear. But for those who dare to see beyond the trap, the solution isn't a leap into the void or an idyllic retreat in the countryside.
The key is to break the cycle before it consumes you, to not be so stupid as to wait until the price is your own life.
It's simple: either you reclaim your time and your health now, or you'll regret it when there's nothing left to save. The choice is yours. But if you decide to stay there, don't complain when the bill arrives.
Because it will arrive, and it will be higher than you can pay.
We’ve entered a new age—not one defined by exploitation from factory owners or the absence of workers' rights, but one where we impose relentless pressure on ourselves. We strive to be better, stronger, more beautiful, more productive, to earn more, to travel more. It's self-exploitation, a form of being exploited by our own hands rather than external physical forces. For a deeper exploration of this concept, refer to Byung-Chul Han’s The Burnout Society