He therefore cannot believe that anybody would do any work unless they are under compulsion. People often cannot believe that social conditions can be different from what they have experienced all their lives. Work in a capitalist society is alienating because it is done to produce profit for the employer rather than to produce anything for the worker's own use, or something that he can call his own. Work is therefore despised and avoided. The corollary to the alienation of labor is the American devotion to squandering the time away from the workplace.
Many people tolerate their jobs only by partying every weekend.
Since the work performed in a class-divided society is of no intrinsic value to the worker, ruling classes must develop motivation techniques appropriate to the relationships of production. In slave societies the workers are the chattel of the ruling class. Uninhibited use of chains and whips is therefore an accepted tool for keeping the workforce motivated. In feudal societies, the lord of an estate grants to each serf a plot of land to raise his family's food in exchange for working the rest of the time for him. Under capitalism, workers are not bound to their employers as property or by common dependence on the lord's land.