The Importance Of Productive Labor

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Why do people work? What inspires us to take on productive labor? Productive labor is strongly linked to our need to meet life’s necessities. However, our need for compensation is more than just the desire to fill our stomach--it may also include our responsibilities to support our family, or an aspiration for self-achievement. Involvement in one’s work varies for every person. For some people there is the desire to live not just for oneself but also for the good of others. Others are occupied in developing their own talents, in discovering their limits and capabilities, or in expressing themselves through their expertise. For some, there may even be an objective to create, to change, to invent something, to pioneer--with motives that may not…show more content…
In Eli’s case, it is simply to avoid starvation and respond to his duty as the head of the family. For Remy, it is her way of expressing her love for others and engaging in the life of the larger community and serving humanity through her voluntary teaching in a day care center. According to Marx, "As individuals express their life, so they are. What they are, therefore, coincides with their production, both with what they produce and with how they produce." For me, human labor does not define a human person. Going back to Eli, it is evident that his productive level is at its minimum. Yet we shouldn’t judge Eli on the basis that he earns only a net pay of P10,000 per month. There are several factors that may hinder Eli from earning big time. One is his educational attainment. We cannot blame Eli if in his childhood refused to continue studying and chose to engage in productive labor because of poverty. Same with Remy, her pure motives of imparting her knowledge and sharing a part of herself by volunteering in the community that entails not receiving a monthly salary does not make her less of a person. Instead, with both of their motives further on, it makes both Eli and Remy superior than the other working classes. Their right intention of earning money for their family’s survival is way better than the motives of power-hungry tycoons who earn money for selfish reasons through illegal

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