I don't get it. You do the same job for 40 years? Or is the issue having something to do for 40 years? I would be so bored without a job - actually I still get bored with a job and can't imagine what I would do with even less on my plate.
I get that, I used to work with an old timer +65 and their job made them feel useful. They told me that otherwise they'd be drinking beers and cruising on demand media. I hope he's still out there doing exactly that. Personally I'd rather be murdered than work until I'm dead.
Covid quarantines and stuff were so boring that everything I normally enjoyed became boring also. I learned that if I don't have something to break up time between leisure activities I'll get tired of them. I work, and it isn't the pinnacle of existence, but what I like to do when I am not working feels better or atleast stays as good.
I don't know, with the huge backlog that I have regarding videogames, movies, TV shows, Anime, podcasts, mangas, comics and books I think I'd be pretty busy without the need of a work, doing one activity at once is tiring ofc, no matter how fun it is but having lots of hobbies helps (and those are the "quarantine friendly hobbies").
Yeah I really can't do purposeless living. I would get depressed in like a week. The content of my work gives me purpose. Those are great hobbies, I enguage with many of them, but none of them would be fulfilling without a purpose beyond them.
We don't need a paid job to in order to work and be productive. We can volunteer to make a better society or do something creative. We need to stop making the equivalence between free time=mindless media consumption. Also,
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit_Jobs
The problem is we need the job money and getting it leaves us so exhausted we restore to lay down and watch a screen. But this is a situation created by the job-centric culture, not solved by it.
Not all jobs are bullshit of course. Yours is much needed. But that was just an example for of the argument, the core remains. Job-centric culture and chronic exhaustion is a social issue regardless of your personal experience.
Maybe I said what I said a little too defensively. I don't want to downplay the quality of what you might have to say on the topic, however, I feel like the r/antiwork dog walkers are upset with me for liking work. I may not be in the most receptive of places at the moment.