Dolly Parton canta a Marx y Engels

On September 1st, even the most well-meaning individuals find themselves humming existential philosopher and a solemn voice questioning how much of their life goes to waste in the drain of work. Dolly Parton encapsulated the universal sentiment of workplace alienation that Karl Marx struggled to express in her three most famous songs, "9 to 5": "Working from nine to five, a way to make a living / What they pay barely enough to survive and all is demands for nothing / Plus they use your ideas and never recognize your merit / It's enough to make you crazy if you let it."

Critics and disgruntled individuals will argue that the lady with large breasts didn't know the horrors of factories Engels documented, and that she, despite claiming humble origins, was a blonde millionaire, far more of an employer than employee. It doesn't matter. Laziness is a plague, and we know it from the technologists who want to hand us all our work to artificial intelligence, up to the Prime Minister, who has been impressively lazy in returning to a routine that lately demands uncomfortable questions, in addition to dismantling the delusions of the ultra-right international.

Meanwhile, no one sings the Socialist International anthem anymore. It's terribly annoying that in a country with 19 million salaried people, we only discuss work and wages when people gather in a frenzy to apply for positions no one wants, or when a boss complains about having to pay for our pension contributions. With so much xenophobic noise, perhaps they didn't even realize that as of Friday, we live in a country where retirees can return to the well and receive less pension.

We must extend working life at all costs, lest we have time to philosophize about the meaning of life as old folks.