When you get up and go to work each morning, do you look forward to your trip to the office? Or are you dreading the day from the moment you wake up and spending 8 hours dreaming of when you’re finally off the clock again? Unfortunately, it’s quite common for people to hate their jobs, as a whopping 70% of workers report feeling dissatisfied with their career choices. So if you’re one of those people, you might need to take 10 minutes out of your day to deal with your lack of passion for your work in a healthy way: by looking at memes and funny photos.
Below, we’ve gathered some of the most painfully true jokes and memes from the Antiwork subreddit that might inspire you to start dismantling capitalism while on your lunch break. Be sure to upvote the posts you find relatable, and let us know in the comments how your job has been treating you recently, pandas. Then, if you’re interested in checking out another Bored Panda article featuring memes that might make Karl Marx proud, look no further than right here! Image credits: americanthaiguy Image credits: DaFunkJunkie Image credits: reddit.com If you’re not already familiar with the Antiwork subreddit, it is a massive and powerful community online. It has amassed 2.4 million members since its creation nearly a decade ago, and it provides a platform for “those who want to end work, are curious about ending work, want to get the most out of a work-free life, want more information on anti-work ideas and want personal help with their own jobs/work-related struggles.” But along with all of the passion the members of r/Antiwork have for dismantling capitalism, they also have a great sense of humor. After all, there’s a bit of truth in every joke, right? If you’re not upset about capitalism, or don’t think much about it at all, that’s fine. We’re not here to radicalize you or urge you to read The Communist Manifesto before bed. But if you are interested in why so many people are upset with the system, let’s discuss some of the reasons why capitalism might not be enhancing your life. Capitalism is touted as a great way to build wealth and have freedom over your own company, rather than having too much interference by the government. It’s the antithesis of communism, which has been shown to prove many issues in practice, so plenty of people have gotten on board with the idea of capitalism. But in practice, it is prone to showing flaws as well, such as massive wealth inequality. Yes, you have the chance to become exorbitantly rich, but it’s also possible, and much more likely, to have very little money at all. Image credits: thriftyknocking_14 Image credits: xhqshs Image credits: Jumpman707 Capitalism has been critiqued for failing to take care of the people and allowing the rich to become richer while the poor are doomed to become poorer. Richard Reeves wrote a piece for The Brookings Institution discussing the reasons why capitalism is failing and why it’s so challenging to just earn decent wages nowadays, and he first noted that the system is simply rigged against workers. “In the last few years, as the zombie gradually wakes up, household incomes and wages have begun to nudge upwards – but families are still having to work more hours to get the income they need,” Reeves writes. “Women are working more, and earning more (though the pay gap remains). But as men work less, and earn less, many families are simply standing still in economic terms. Since 1979, the median male wage in the US has dropped by 1.4% for whites– and by 9% and 8% for black and Hispanic men, respectively.” “Workers at the top of the earnings and education distribution have seen their paychecks continue to fatten: not so on the middle and bottom rungs of the labor market. Wage growth remains torpid in the middle of the distribution.” Image credits: throwingawaycabbage Image credits: moistplethora17 Image credits: mydmtusername Capitalism is also being criticized for being a culprit behind climate change. As George Monbiot wrote in a piece published by The Guardian, “It scarcely matters how green you think you are. The main cause of your environmental impact isn’t your attitude. It isn’t your mode of consumption. It isn’t the choices you make. It’s your money. If you have surplus money, you spend it. While you might persuade yourself that you are a green mega-consumer, in reality you are just a mega-consumer. This is why the environmental impacts of the very rich, however right-on they may be, are massively greater than those of everyone else.” Image credits: gusty_feedback Image credits: reddit.com Image credits: reddit.com Monbiot breaks down how the richest 1% of the world’s population produce an average of more than 70 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year, when it’s recommended that the average person produce less than 2 tons annually. And when the ultra-wealthy try to convince people that they’re working to reduce climate change, their actions often backfire. “The switch to biofuels favored by Bill Gates is now among the greatest causes of habitat destruction, as forests are felled to produce wood pellets and liquid fuels, and soils are trashed to make biomethane,” Monbiot writes. “There is a poverty line below which no one should fall, and a wealth line above which no one should rise. We need wealth taxes, not carbon taxes.” Image credits: Elbrujosalvaje Image credits: jpstroop Image credits: squat001 “More important than the direct impacts of the ultra-wealthy is the political and cultural power with which they block effective change,” Monbiot explains. “Their cultural power relies on a hypnotizing fairytale. Capitalism persuades us that we are all temporarily embarrassed millionaires. This is why we tolerate it. In reality, some people are extremely rich because others are extremely poor: massive wealth depends on exploitation. And if we did all become millionaires, we would cook the planet in no time at all. But the fairytale of universal wealth, one day, secures our obedience.” Image credits: reddit.com Image credits: Mysterious_Class6929 Image credits: MisterCallegari And if you feel like there’s something wrong with you for not being fulfilled or satisfied by your job, don’t worry. You are not alone. Sarah Jaffe, author of Work Won’t Love You Back, discussed her book with Time and addressed how corporations use the phrase “do what you love” to simply exploit their workers. “I’ve had various service-industry jobs since I was 14—everything from scooping ice cream to making coffee to waiting tables, all public-facing, ‘paste a smile on’, emotional labor kind of work. This work sucks. It’s terrible, and you constantly have to pretend you like it,” Jaffe told Time. “When I moved to Denver when I was 22, I was interviewed for this job at this sushi restaurant. And the owner was like, ‘Where do you see yourself in five years?’” she shared. “And I was like, ‘Dude, you’re going to pay me $2.13 an hour. You don’t get my career aspirations and hopes and dreams for $2.13 an hour. You get me showing up on time. The rest of my wage is paid by the customer anyway.’ And so I feel like this has been haunting me since then.” Image credits: black_booty_tooty Image credits: Abder_Rahim Image credits: traveler0011 Jaffe also explained how “loving what you do” can be less conducive to living a stable life, if what you love isn’t very lucrative. “I’d much rather be doing the work that I’m currently doing than waiting tables, even though there are times as a freelance journalist, where my income has been about comparable to what it was waiting tables,” she told Time. “I’m not trying to argue … that you should go work at a factory because that will make you happier. What I’m saying is that the way that this story is wielded against us actually makes it possible for me as a journalist who has a graduate degree to make no more money than I did waiting tables because I was supposed to be grateful to get $35,000 a year for my first journalism job.” Image credits: reddit.com Image credits: ansleytaylor Image credits: braveenk Jaffe does acknowledge, however, that Americans in particular have a hard time managing in their capitalist society that provides very little benefits and help for employees by law. She notes that in France, for example, they didn’t magically receive better working conditions. “They work 35 hours a week because they went on strike,” she explained. “There’s a tradition of militancy in a lot of these places that stems from having been successful and remembering what it took to be successful.” “I don’t think that we should be fooled into believing that Americans just love their jobs more than everybody else. We work more because we have to, because we literally don’t have the same job protections that people in Western Europe do,” she added. Image credits: Revolutionary_Mix941 Image credits: Go_Habs_Go31 Image credits: Pizar_III I sincerely hope this list has not been bumming you out, pandas. But if you’re feeling inspired to quit your job and find one you’re more passionate about, I encourage you to go and explore! Don’t let capitalism make you feel forced into one specific path or brainwash you into believing that suffering is normal. Keep upvoting the pictures that you find painfully relatable, and let us know in the comments how you’d like to dismantle capitalism. Then, if you’re interested in checking out another Bored Panda article featuring memes about capitalism, you can find that right here! Image credits: mrmgwilson Image credits: 87tskin Image credits: blueraptorz Image credits: Dipsi1010 Image credits: pdmtz Image credits: caIyps0o Image credits: reguitt Image credits: blues0 Image credits: PrimaryBand Image credits: rudeplethora_49 Image credits: Anon293357 Image credits: Rica_Bee Image credits: dirtbagloon Image credits: Empress_of_Penguins Image credits: reddit.com Image credits: Hglucky13 Image credits: ADignifiedLife Image credits: evansfaf Image credits: Cybordad Image credits: disasterswife Image credits: adamgreattweet Image credits: Everyones_unique Image credits: DaFunkJunkie#1 Keep Your Nose Out Of Other People's Business
#2 Explain It To Me Like I’m In Kindergarten
#3 Please Come Save Us Alien Invaders
#4 Maybe You Are Right
#5 I Want To Watch This Show!
#6 Self Care On Your Free Time Is Priority Above All Else
#7 Telling Them Not To Throw A Party, Throwing A Party, Then Getting Fired For Your Reaction
#8 So Close To The Truth
#9 Retirement Age
#10 Does Anyone Else Feel This Way?
#11 How You Should Respond
#12 The Amount Of Companies That Do This
#13 What's With The Double Standard?
#14 Whoooops…
#15 Could Not Agree More
#16 The American Dream Is To Move Out
#17 Completely Unrealistic
#18 This F*****g Motivational Quote When I Walked In This Morning
#19 Just Gonna Leave This Here
#20 I Think It's Belong Here
#21 Imagine
#22 Can't We Just Troll Sue Them Into Oblivion?
#23 Found On Twitter… It’s A Vibe
#24 Wow Look At How Diverse Your Lowest Paying Jobs Are!
#25 So Damn Accurate
#26 Undercover Bum
#27 This Belongs Here
#28 I’d Love To Do This
#29 Most Companies Want Your Soul, Too
#30 So True That I Am Amazed
#31 Thoughts?
#32 Screw You Guys, I'm Going Home
#33 Companies Be Like:
#34 • ₊°✧︡ ˗ˏ ˋ ♡ ˎˊ ˗no
#35 Title
#36 Sums It Up Perfectly
#37 Tips For Younger Folks In The Workplace
#38 Coffee
#39 100% Of The Time
#40 There Are More Of Us Than Them
#41 I’d Like To Thank My Job For Giving Me All Four Of These
#42 Bloomberg… Your Bias Is Showing
#43 This Showed Up On My Newsfeed Today And I Couldn’t Agree More
#44 Hot Take That Needs To Be Said
#45 Millennials Are Causing A "Baby Bust" - What The Actual Fuck?
#46 The Gift That Keeps On Giving
#47 Gonna Leave This Here
#48 Best Part Of The Work Day
#49 Why We Like This
#50 I Like This Energy
This post first appeared on How Movie Actors Look Without Their Makeup And Costume, please read the originial post: here
