This:

"Can you begin to imagine what decades of working a useless job that you believe provides zero value can do to someone? This is literal torture. It is a life of quiet desperation."

Is just so much bullshit. Not sure what these useless jobs you speak of are. Maybe they need to find one of the "essential worker" jobs. Hauling trash or stocking shelves. Very few jobs are of zero value.

Looking at things a bit differently, "working for the weekend," maybe your job does not provide meaning or purpose, but it pays the bills so that you can pursue interests that provide meaning and purpose in your non-working hours.

Maybe those who are quietly desperate don't need to change a thing except what they value and their need for validation. Be careful with the purpose thing. Most of the worse evil has been committed by men with a powerful sense of purpose.

TEK