After roughly a century and a half, Karl Marx has finally been replaced as the face of capitalist critique. His successor? None other than influencer @brielleybelly123, a 20-something college grad who has a whole lot to say about the state of the American labor market.


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@brielleybelly123, who recently landed her first job in Marketing after a grueling five-month search, headed to TikTok last week with several questions surrounding the plausibility of the 9 — 5 job … namely how the f—k are we supposed to get anything done when 19 out of 24 hours are dedicated to work and commuting?



“I know I’m probably just being dramatic and annoying, but this is my first job, my first 9 to 5 job after college,” she said, noting that while her job is in person in New York she commutes from New Jersey, a trek that takes “f—king  forever.”


“I get on the train at 7:30 and I don’t get home until 6:15 at the earliest, and then I don’t have time to do anything,” she continued, citing rent prices as her rationale for her hours-long commute. “I want to shower, eat my dinner, and go to sleep. I don’t have time or energy to cook my dinner either, I don’t have energy to work out, that’s out the window.”


Despite her astute observations about the expectations of the American workforce — “The 9 to 5 schedule, in general, is crazy,” she said— her video quickly went viral. While several boomers — and news outlets — dunked on her take and denounced her as naive, several others wholeheartedly agreed with her tearful plea.


“The 40 hour work week is beyond outdated and your feelings are totally valid, " wrote one commenter.”


“It’s so repetitive and depressing, I feel you girl,” added another.



But as the debate surrounding @brielleybelly123’s quick disenchantment with the American capitalist ideal shot to viral infamy, she headed to TikTok to clarify her clip, acknowledging her privilege not only as a college graduate who has been able to find work in their field, but as a young, single person without pets or children.


“America needs to reform the 9-5 schedule,” she stated. “It’s not fair that the only people that are benefiting are the people who either run the corporations that can make their own schedules so the just pile on the work to people who are less fortunate or people that are extremely rich or influencers that don’t have to work a regular schedule.”


@brielleybelly123: Because Karl Marx is SO 19th century.