In a lot of "professions", expensive qualifications lapse after one or two years. When you're in work you're employer pays for you to get (or brush up on) these things, unless they're cheapscates like my last lot, but when you're oota work you're on your own. Part P for electricians, that sort o'thing.

I used to "believe in" work a lot more than I do now: I used to say it unites people, it brought women more rights, it gets you free from landlords/etc because you can get your own place, you learn stuff doing it, now I still sort of believe all that, but cancelling it out are two huge drawbacks with work as it presently is:
1. Most of it is pointless. Doubly so given that practically all commercial work involves directly or indirectly knackering the environment in order to provide people with goods-or-services that don't improve their lives, and a lot of "public sector" work involves cleaning up the commercial sector's mess.
2. Now more than any time since the war I suppose, working people are treated like machines. Even in fields like research, people are working to "targets" and suchlike, and really I think there are better ways, given that most of the vital physical work is done by energy/machines, that we could all be spending our time. The trouble is most people are so out-of-practice at doing so!

- Lunchista