So let’s say I wanted to become a painter in the USSR how would I achieve that. I know that you could go to school for say engineering and then get assigned a job when you got out of school so did it work the same way for artistic endeavors? Or would you first get assigned a job and then in your free time pursue the artistic endeavor. Basically, were you an artist first, or where you say a steelworker who was an artist second until you got enough of a base to pursue being an artist full time?
Labor in the social sense should be understood as anything that expands or reproduces social wealth. This would include material utility but also maintenance and development of the superstructure.
Basic needs have to be met, but after that the labor of artists, authors, and thinkers are at least as important as production of luxury goods. The superstructure is the greater language in which we place ourselves and others.