Labour

There is nothing necessarily dignified about manual labour at all, and most of it is absolutely degrading. It is mentally and morally injurious to man to do anything in which he does not find pleasure, and many forms of labour are quite pleasureless activities, and should be regarded as such. To sweep a slushy crossing for eight hours, on a day when the east wind is blowing is a disgusting occupation. To sweep it with mental, moral, or physical dignity seems to me to be impossible. To sweep it with joy would be appalling.  Man is made for something better than disturbing dirt.  All work of that kind should be done by a machine.

Site editor's additional note:
As a specification, all labour which is routine work -whether it is predominantly mental or predominantly physical- is degrading. Say all work which requires approximately more than two hours a day.

'Approximately', as the criteria of 'too much' consists of the measuring of two factors:

One: the amount of energy the labour consumes, the loss of energy, as that energy will not be available for other occupations, both mentally and physically.

Two: the amount of consolidation which the repeated tasks of the labour bring about physically and mentally, consolidation in terms of deep pattern engraving, which brings about an overall decrease of the ability of fluid flow and change in relation to other occupations and the competences they require.