A short story of the assujettissment to work

Ancient societies aspired to an ideal freeing the individual from material needs and the obligation to work. Until the Reformation, and even afterward, the ruling classes sought the same situation. The advent of market capitalism changed everything. This new framework, which is ours, contradicts the dominant ethos of all earlier societies. To us, wasting time – being idle, instead of doing something “useful” – is a moral failing. Is our industriousness for the better, or for the worse?