In part we are a victim of our own intelectualisation and ability to think of concepts as physical objects (which they are not). To some degree that is helpful, but we go too far and don't know when to stop. You make this point perfectly. But I think it goes deeper. Why do we even bother serving an institution?

The other problem is the concept of having a job in order to survive. Pressed against the wall many of us will often knowingly choose the wrong option. A farm worker who sprays pesticides over an orchard is not a bad person, he does not wish getting cancer to his buyers, but he too has a family to feed and bills to pay. A lot of immoral decisions are taken this way.

My hopes for a solution lie in universal basic income (enough to survive) which would divorce our work from the existential angst and make work as something we do in order to genuinely cintribute to society and live as fulfilled human beings. UBI is not an expensive project at all because it saves a lot of damage and costs downstream (not just damages that you describe, but also depression, drug abuse, domestic violence, etc).