It's an attitude he's had for a while. Previously Musk said that "China rocks" and that Americans are full of "complacency and entitlement especially in places like the Bay Area, and L.A. and New York":

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/31/tesla-ceo-elon-musk-china-ro...

Musk called California "fascist" for its covid measures:

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/29/elon-musk-slams-coronavirus-...

But Musk had Tesla praise China for its covid measures announcing that Tesla "always strived to fulfil its epidemic prevention responsibilities and that it believed Shanghai's COVID-19 measures helped lay the foundation for the city's future development":

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-...

Musk is quite happy to jump as high as China tells him to.

Depends on who defines "work" and what it's defined as. Lots and lots of people want to work in tech, but they don't want to work in tech in specific worksites. Especially if those worksites are non-optimal. Virtually nobody wants to work in the hot fields pulling vegetables and fruit, but it keeps body and soul together.

If "work" was so bloody amazing, governments would reverse the tax treatment of passive vs. active income...

I mean… ethics aside, he’s not entirely wrong. Though I think he’s partially ignoring the lying flat movement emerging alongside anti-work here in the US

There must me Tesla employees that visit HN regularly. If you still work there, even after such an announcement, you have no self-respect.

America has OSHA and therapists, China has suicide nets.