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A Day in the Life of Americans

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Re: A Day in the Life of Americans

#41

Post by thaumasiotes »

abenedic wrote: post #39
40acres wrote: post #13

I wake up @ 4AM most days to get my work out in. Walking to the gym gives me a glimpse of a different America. It's mostly men, white guys in my city, they are all middle class looking dudes. Loading up trucks at the nearby grocery or beginning/ending their shift, maybe some security guards once in a while. There's some homeless people every once in a while but for the most part they don't seem to be active. There ar…

> It's mostly men, white guys in my city I am sorry, I am not American, though I live here. Does this not in itself contribute to the uncomfortable feelings of women and minorities in your city?

That the people loading and unloading trucks at 4 in the morning are white? How would they even know?

I'm pretty confident that the people who load and unload trucks are mostly men regardless of what time they do it or what country they're in.

Re: A Day in the Life of Americans

#42

Post by 121789 »

ghaff wrote: post #30
mancerayder wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even more suspicious or chore-seeming to those that are more productive during the evening, which studies recently suggest this could be how some of us are wired. There's this, I think Anglo-Saxon fixation on early mornings being where productive and good people do things. Maybe a cultural byproduct of regions of the world with short, dark winter days?

One of the benefits I find with coming back from trips to Europe returning to the US East Coast is there's about a week where I'm tending to get up by 5AM or so. I slip back to a normal schedule but I really feel good getting a bunch of work done by 9AM or so. Can't really keep it up sans jetlag though.

It’s a really great feeling. I went for a while getting up at 5:00am, going to the gym, then straight to work by 7 or so. I’d often get the most important work of the day done by 10 and I felt pretty amazing. But having to go to sleep by 10 (which means in bed by 9:30) was too hard to adhere to.

Re: A Day in the Life of Americans

#43

Post by jondubois »

It's extremely surprising that by 3pm in the middle of the day, there are as many people enjoying leisure time as there are people working (about 30%). Where are these people? I don't see anyone leaving the office at 3pm where I work. I'm pretty sure that the 'average day' doesn't mean weekend.

I thought it might be night shift workers, but then during the night, only about 1% of people are working.

Re: A Day in the Life of Americans

#44

Post by mysterydip »

jondubois wrote: post #43

It's extremely surprising that by 3pm in the middle of the day, there are as many people enjoying leisure time as there are people working (about 30%). Where are these people? I don't see anyone leaving the office at 3pm where I work. I'm pretty sure that the 'average day' doesn't mean weekend. I thought it might be night shift workers, but then during the night, only about 1% of people are working.

I would have agreed with you before I got a job in the public sector. I'd say a quarter of the people in the buildings around here are gone by 3, with hardly anyone still here by 6. Some of those people start their day at 6 too, but there are also some "in by 10, out by 2" kinds of people. Nearby DC seems to be the same way from their rush hour traffic patterns.

Re: A Day in the Life of Americans

#45

Post by dabbledash »

rayiner wrote: post #19
trowawee wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't actually think your second point is correct on either a historical or practical level. Historically, humans had a lot of what would now be considered downtime, especially in certain societies. And practically, nothing actually "requires" that except for the fact that we've set up society in such a way to allow some people get to grow wildly wealthy on the backs on the labor of most of the people putting in th…

Fun fact: if you took all the income in the U.S. (labor + capital) and distributed it evenly, every adult person would make about $65,000. Quite comfortable, and maybe a big improvement on the status quo, but still "working stiff" territory. We still live in an era where America's protestant work ethic is relevant. Maybe that'll change decades from now, but we're still quite a ways away from being in a post-scarcity…

That would more than double the current average income. Right now the average family of four makes about 60k.

Re: A Day in the Life of Americans

#46

Post by davnicwil »

40acres wrote: post #31
mmartinson wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious, do you manage to fall asleep by 8 or 9? I'd love to get up early more regularly, but I find it tough up turn my mind off before the world quiets down.

I try to be in bed by 10 or 10:30.

So are you sleeping 5.5-6 hours per night? Is this just on work days or all the time? How long can you / have you sustained doing this regularly?

Re: A Day in the Life of Americans

#48

Post by oriol16 »

abenedic wrote: post #39
40acres wrote: post #13

I wake up @ 4AM most days to get my work out in. Walking to the gym gives me a glimpse of a different America. It's mostly men, white guys in my city, they are all middle class looking dudes. Loading up trucks at the nearby grocery or beginning/ending their shift, maybe some security guards once in a while. There's some homeless people every once in a while but for the most part they don't seem to be active. There ar…

> It's mostly men, white guys in my city I am sorry, I am not American, though I live here. Does this not in itself contribute to the uncomfortable feelings of women and minorities in your city?

Congratulations on the dumbest and most judgemental comment on the internet of the day

Re: A Day in the Life of Americans

#49

Post by DailyHN »

davnicwil wrote: post #46
40acres wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I try to be in bed by 10 or 10:30.

So are you sleeping 5.5-6 hours per night? Is this just on work days or all the time? How long can you / have you sustained doing this regularly?

Sounds like the Jay Leno gene. Must be nice. I need a solid 8.5 hours otherwise I'm useless.

Re: A Day in the Life of Americans

#50

Post by TeMPOraL »

steveklabnik wrote: post #11
charmides wrote: post #3

Seems like my sleeping patterns are a lot different than those of most other people. Also, I felt depressed to see that people spend most of their lives sleeping and working or in some transition thereof.

"8 Hours for Work, 8 Hours for Rest, 8 Hours for What We Will" was a slogan in the labor movement, fighting for the eight hour day, coined in 1817.

Unfortunately, it didn't count commute and chores eating into the "What We Will" part.
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