I absolutely and totally agree with this sentiment , and I think it gets to the heart of what bothered me about the article . For better or worse , work is one way that people feel like they ' re accomplishing something with their time , and that sense of accomplishment however small it might be is vital for our wellbeing . Take that away , and people have to find a way to be useful in other ways that they don ' t necessarily know how to do . I think there ' s this optimistic idea that we all have a talent or gift that we can exercise like your tradesman , or like a freelance writer or what have you but the reality is that we don ' t , and that expecting us to create our own structures in which to generate accomplishment is never going to work . What you could theoretically have is a society filled with even more depressed and less fulfilled people than before , which solves exactly nothing .