Pretty soon you should come to the realization that the real question is "What is the value of work?", and the answer is that it enables your leisure time. If you work so much that you have no leisure time then you have defeated yourself, your life is empty.
> "What is the value of work?", and the answer is that it enables your leisure time.
I think that is false. Enabling your leisure is not the sole value of work.
The GP said:
>> I know I could be [...] volunteering my time on a political campaign I believe in, or working to feed the homeless
Those are work too. If you are a certain kind of person, you do those things and value them, and they don't enable your leisure time, indeed they reduce it.
I don't think it's for fun either. Another commenter said:
>>> the number one reason I spend my time there—by far—is because it was fun
It was fun for them, but I know people who do volunteer work to help others who don't find it fun, but do it because they think it is right or essential to do anyway.
I think most people do some kinds of work which is not for the sole purpose of enabling their leisure time, at some time in their lives.
For example every key worker (nurse etc) who feels underpaid but remains in the job because they feel it is a good thing to do. Every unpaid carer of their parents. Every volunteer who delivers food to others during pandemic even when they have become fed up of doing so.
