I work with plenty of people that may put in a "hard" 2-3 hours of actual work a day. Comparing effort and every poor person I grew up with actually worked really hard.
If anything it's coded language for 'working hard is a great way to end up poor'.
PS: Consider all the "hardworking" people here on HN. Yes, long hours may be expected, but effort has little direct benefit.
No doubt. They are hard workers, hustlers (in the best sense of the word), scammers, grifters, and some of the laziest folks I've ever met -- and everything in between.
They're just people. When the upper-classes talk about the poor as all good or all bad it's always in the context of selling you their politics.
I think the point here is that in white-collar workplaces long hours are mostly an abstract way of signaling that you take the job seriously, not exhausting in the way that long hours in a job demanding physical labor would be.
There are different kinds of tired — physically exhausted, brain-fried, and emotionally spent — but I’m not making any sort of comparison between them.
