I believe that seeking external validation, inspiration and/or reason is not robust and a path to unhappiness. IMO, it's better if the reasons for you to care come from within.

I dont pay my bills from reasons within.

The reasons to care are personal pride in the quality of your work, understanding that your lack of effort has a negative impact on your colleagues, and your continued employment.

And if you hate your job, but are completely unable to find alternative employment (which is what you should do if you hate your job), you probably should reconsider how much you hate your job.

Got any recipes for delicious meals I can make with my pride?

I take pride in the stuff I enjoy doing. A job is just a paycheck because I need it.

He wasn't asking you to work for free.

I know. But people will worry about dollars first before they even think about pride.

My point is that they're related. People who take pride in their work generally do better work and make more money. People who don't take pride in their work and often try to see how little work they can get away with while still remaining employed generally make less money.

I find it hard to believe you actually read my comment before demonstrating you are probably one of the people I'm talking about at the end of it.

At no point did I state or imply that workers should be working solely or even primarily for anything other than money.

But if you can't be bothered to take pride in the work you're being paid to do, you shouldn't be paid to do it for long.

I will do my job as well as necessary to keep it in order to keep receiving money. If I could find a job that pays well and made me happier I would.

If you can't find a better job, you should probably appreciate the one you have and not try to skate by with the bare minimum, if for no other reason than you're likely to miscalculate at some point.

That’s just another way of saying work harder for same pay because the company knows they have you by the balls.

No, it's recognizing you have no better alternative so you shouldn't take what you do have for granted, because it's not guaranteed to continue.

"Beatings will continue until morale improves."

People have a working contract and all you have to do is work according to the contract.

Ah, noble poverty! Be grateful to tha masta' for providing you the scraps he can provide! Your paycheck is the beautiful work you produce for tha masta'!

Seriously, pay people what they are worth and they will care. It is not that hard.

The vast majority of people significantly overestimate their worth, yet people with your attitude seem to believe it only exists with respect to highly compensated employees.

I agree with your second sentence, but it's harder than it should be due to what I said above.

Pride in the quality of my work is a phrase to make one feel bad about themselves. I take pride in my hobbies and in my hobby projects. I take pride in my family and friends. I do not take pride in being exploited for my work so some higher up can buy a new car every year.

And again, someone comes and makes a comment that proves my point. Unless you are working in very unusual (and illegal in the developed world) circumstances, you are not being exploited in any real sense.

In the end this depends on your definition of "fair". What percentage of your generated production do you think is fair for the company to take? 95%? 50%? 10%?

That depends on the value of your generated production, among many other things, and ultimately isn't the right question to ask.

Can an employee obtain better employment terms elsewhere (which is a complex concept to define in itself)? If so, they are underpaid, if not, they aren't.

You were talking about exploitation. Using the fact that the employee cannot obtain a better employment elsewhere to extract as much of the production or value from the employee smells a lot like exploitation to me.

If an employer offers an employee $100 per hour, and the next best offer that employee can obtain elsewhere is $90 for an otherwise equivalent job, should the employee take that job for granted? Is the employer exploiting them with their pay rate?

That would be the case in an idealized world. As with everything this depends on the circumstances and the economic activity of where the person is living in. I guess that with the north american eyes it is the employee's fault if the employee cannot find some other job since the only constraint for doing it is the personal drive. But there are other economical/educational constraints that don't allow people to have the necessary mobility for your example to be efficient and accurate.

Put down the Ayn Rand BS books. What if the employers make 10k per unit of work while they pay you only $10 per unit of work and they have all talked to each other to never pay more than $10? What do you do then? Complain? Go to court? Who do you think has more influence over the politicians/courts? You making $10 or your bosses that are all millionaires because of your severly underpaid work?

Your scenario is the equivalent of Ayn Rand books for the lazy and entitled.

What's the point of inventing a non-existent situation where you're obviously correct, other than self-gratification?

Non-existent situation? How about you read a little history? You can start with the word "collusion".

In my humble exploited worker opinion, you resemble Samuel L Jackson in Django Unchained. You dont even realize in what position you are in. Get back to the ground bootlicker.

And in my humble opinion, you will continue to be dissatisfied and somehow it's everyone's fault but your own.

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