Money = Work = Worth: A Story We’ve All Inherited

How the equation of “work = worth” drives overproduction, overconsumption — and hides real contribution.

💼 In the dominant economic model, value is produced through work, measured in wages, and expressed in consumption.

This logic shapes our societies — from self-worth to national policy.
📈 At macro levels, GDP — Gross Domestic Product — is the global benchmark of success.

It counts every transaction, every sale — but not those, with burnout, who are left behind.

It doesn’t distinguish value creation from value extraction.

Destruction and reconstruction both raise GDP.

Exploitation and exhaustion aren’t bugs — they’re features.
💣 Economies appear to thrive when people and Nature are being depleted.

Growth depends on producing, selling, and consuming more — regardless of the consequences.

🧱 At the human level, this gets internalised as:

• Work = Worth
• Money = Proof

“You deserve only what you produce.”
“If you’re struggling, you’re not working hard enough.”
“Care, stewardship, restraint — those are nice, but they’re not ‘real’ work.”

Nature, in this system, is treated as a charity case.
⚠️ This isn’t just a cultural myth — it’s a structural reality.

Effort only counts if it generates outputs.
But outputs = consumption.
And mass consumption is the system.

📦 That’s why care, preservation, and regeneration are systematically undervalued.

They don’t produce “stuff.”
They maintain, protect, and sustain — economically invisible, yet existentially vital.

📉 Meanwhile, the scale of ecological debt we’ve inherited is so large, no individual effort can repay it.

Still, the story persists:
“Try harder.” “Be more productive.” “Deserve more.”
This pressure leads to burnout, guilt, overwork, anxiety — a contradiction between what’s rewarded and what the future needs.

🔁 Attempts to re-value what matters — climate action, social care, wellbeing — are often met with scepticism:
“If you’re paid, is it ethical?”
“If it’s incentivised, is it meaningful?”

In fact: 📌 Market value supersedes moral value.

🌱 It’s time to break the equation.

While some consumption is needed to sustains us, stewardship, experience, and care define us.
Our economies should reflect that balance, not obscure it.

🔗 Missed Part 1/7? Read here: Why the Swiss Said No to Free Money

▶️ Up next: What if Stewardship Was Financially Recognised?

💬 Question: If GDP measures only what can be sold, what measures what truly matters?

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