I got paid much more in the private sector, and all my labor was entirely pointless, and contributed absolutely nothing to the betterment of society.

I realized I'd much rather be doing important work, regardless of how much less the pay was. I read a book, called "the magic of thinking big", and one of its points was to ask the question: "What are the biggest problems in the world today? And what are you doing to solve them?"

We have one life to live, and my communist politics demand that I spend my most valuable resource, my labor time, on things that can result in the greatest benefit to humanity.