The Gig Economy Celebrates Working To Excess
newyorker.com
The Gig Economy Celebrates Working To Excess
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Re: The Gig Economy Celebrates Working To Excess
#2Seems like in America it's hard to win. Either get paid not nearly enough and struggle to make ends meet, or get a high paid high stress job, still work all day and all night.
Maybe we just have too much of that protestant work ethic?
Re: The Gig Economy Celebrates Working To Excess
#3Seems like in America it's hard to win. Either get paid not nearly enough and struggle to make ends meet, or get a high paid high stress job, still work all day and all night. Maybe we just have too much of that protestant work ethic?
Some might say "too much capitalism". I don't know many protestants.
Re: The Gig Economy Celebrates Working To Excess
#4Seems like in America it's hard to win. Either get paid not nearly enough and struggle to make ends meet, or get a high paid high stress job, still work all day and all night. Maybe we just have too much of that protestant work ethic?
Some might say "too much capitalism". I don't know many protestants.
"Too much capitalism" would imply that the people who get money funneled to them at the top don't work hard enough (or take enough risk) to earn that money. Surely you don't believe that?
edit: Sarcasm on HN is a bad idea. Obviously earning 400x a worker's wage is bullshit, there's no amount of work that justifies that.
Re: The Gig Economy Celebrates Working To Excess
#5Seems like in America it's hard to win. Either get paid not nearly enough and struggle to make ends meet, or get a high paid high stress job, still work all day and all night. Maybe we just have too much of that protestant work ethic?
>> Seems like in America it's hard to win. Either get paid not nearly enough and struggle to make ends meet, or get a high paid high stress job, still work all day and all night.
A consequence of worshipping money. Even a human is valued by the amount of money they make or what they can afford.
Other societies have agreed that there are some fundamental things that they will all share the burden for collectively and the rich are going to contribute a larger share towards those collective resources. Thus, humans are not reduced to what they make but how they live and what their values are. Happy faces sharing a dining table, celebrating large families and friendships that last a lifetime.
It's not protestant work ethic. It's ass on fire, all the time for 70 years (save 18 years before college) and hoping you don't meet a "man-made" disaster like healthcare disaster, divorces, bankruptcies, lawsuits, prisons (completely ignoring natural disasters).
Re: The Gig Economy Celebrates Working To Excess
#6Seems like in America it's hard to win. Either get paid not nearly enough and struggle to make ends meet, or get a high paid high stress job, still work all day and all night. Maybe we just have too much of that protestant work ethic?
I'm sure there's a happy middle. Obsession with luxuries and consumption play a big part in getting stuck on the hedonic treadmill. Obsession with achievement probably plays a big role in burnout and overwork.
Personally, I'm doing my best to get to a point where I can feel good in an outfit I've had for years, feel good with a cheap haircut, feel satisfied reading and meditating to relax and being able to leave work at work and sleep soundly no matter the occurrences of the day. Judge me by the way I treat you not by the number of zeros in my bank account.
Re: The Gig Economy Celebrates Working To Excess
#7Seems like in America it's hard to win. Either get paid not nearly enough and struggle to make ends meet, or get a high paid high stress job, still work all day and all night. Maybe we just have too much of that protestant work ethic?
Some might say "too much capitalism". I don't know many protestants.
Right, I'd agree with that. But my point is that capitalist drive, and that feeling to "work hard and you'll succeed" rather than saying it's who you know and how lucky you are, some historians trace down to the early American protestants.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant_work_ethic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Protestant_Ethic_and_the_S...
Re: The Gig Economy Celebrates Working To Excess
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some might say "too much capitalism". I don't know many protestants.
"Too much capitalism" would imply that the people who get money funneled to them at the top don't work hard enough (or take enough risk) to earn that money. Surely you don't believe that? edit: Sarcasm on HN is a bad idea. Obviously earning 400x a worker's wage is bullshit, there's no amount of work that justifies that.
I believe that. Family connections matter far more than how hard you work.
I don't think it's unfair, or that there's too much capitalism, but it's the nature of the system. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig_qpNfXHIU
edit: Sarcasm on HN is a bad idea. Obviously earning 400x a worker's wage is bullshit, there's no amount of work that justifies that.
Well, look at what Steve Jobs did for Apple. Regardless of whether he would've done that if he was paid less, how many workers was he worth? The natural follow-up question is then, why not pay them what they're worth?
One reason CEOs are paid so much is to prevent them from making short-term decisions that optimize their stock price at the expense of long-term planning. If their entire compensation is tied to the stock price, there's no incentive for any CEO to try to do better than increase the stock price at any cost.
Re: The Gig Economy Celebrates Working To Excess
#9Seems like in America it's hard to win. Either get paid not nearly enough and struggle to make ends meet, or get a high paid high stress job, still work all day and all night. Maybe we just have too much of that protestant work ethic?
>> Seems like in America it's hard to win. Either get paid not nearly enough and struggle to make ends meet, or get a high paid high stress job, still work all day and all night. A consequence of worshipping money. Even a human is valued by the amount of money they make or what they can afford. Other societies have agreed that there are some fundamental things that they will all share the burden for collectively and…
I'd agree with all of that. The differences between Europe and the US in terms of maternity leave / time off / healthcare are fairly stark. And now we're presently dismantling healthcare as a right in the US.
Really hitting at least one disaster in your life seems almost inevitable, and the system is waiting there to profit from you.
I'm definitely of the more socialist bent, in that I know that if people around me aren't healthy and safe, everyone is more at risk. But I feel in the minority these days.
Re: The Gig Economy Celebrates Working To Excess
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some might say "too much capitalism". I don't know many protestants.
"Too much capitalism" would imply that the people who get money funneled to them at the top don't work hard enough (or take enough risk) to earn that money. Surely you don't believe that? edit: Sarcasm on HN is a bad idea. Obviously earning 400x a worker's wage is bullshit, there's no amount of work that justifies that.
Look, while there are enough people getting money funneled to them at the top for sure work very hard. But those are not the seriously rich. Those are the subalterns, they earn about seven or eight figures a year and work hard for it.
The seriously rich get to chose how much they want to work, if they want to work at all. Surely you know that?
Edit: sarcasm is best perceived when the argument leads ad adsurdum. Now people at the top working very hard and taking risks happens all the time and your "Surely you don't believe that?" could have been just an arrogant attitude, so your sarcasm was hard to spot. But I'm glad to hear it was just sarcasm :)