Why Americans Care About Work So Much • Hacker News Board

Re: Why Americans Care About Work So Much

#61

Post by yucky » Sat, Apr 01, 2023, 3:33 PM UTC

Dalewyn wrote: post #35

DubiousPusher wrote: post #17

I very much agree with the author's thesis here. I think there is a kind of derangement especially among SV types about making every job about rescuing the world. And I think it comes from exactly this place of the human need for spirituality which is currently starved. But I had to screech the breaks for a second at this conjecture. > Their work was a matter of subsistence and necessity; it was not a race for status…

>Their spiritual frameworks provided direction on ... whom to marry and how to raise children. As a non-religious man (no, not atheist: non-religious ), I can definitely say that the lack of an overbearing deity or otherwise some sort of Code of Divine Conduct(tm) prescribing such things has led me to put such frivolous matters as marriage and family aside and very likely never touched upon again. Objectively, I simp…

As another non-religious but not atheist person, your worldview has nothing to do with your take on religion. I don't share that position on women or family at all and it sounds like a really depressing way to view life.

I can't think of anything more rewarding in my life.

Re: Why Americans Care About Work So Much

#62

Post by lazyant » Sat, Apr 01, 2023, 3:48 PM UTC

scruple wrote: post #20

protonbob wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plenty of us still go to church every week!

What do I do if I want to "go back" to church but I don't believe? Speaking personally, and without spilling a few paragraphs of text here, it seems like that's where I am today.

maybe look into Unitarian Universal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitarian_Universalism

Re: Why Americans Care About Work So Much

#63

Post by analognoise » Sat, Apr 01, 2023, 8:20 PM UTC

chii wrote: post #5

shams93 wrote: post #3

Well with the savagely frayed state of the social safety net if you're not born rich, basically if you can't find work in California you're unlikely to get food stamps especially if you are able bodied and healthy otherwise than having the illness of having been born in the US past the date of 1965.

> especially if you are able bodied and healthy if you're abled bodied, and healthy, why should society bear a burden of giving you resources to live off long term? To exist means to locate the resources to live (such as food, shelter, etc). These resources can no longer be foraged like in the days of old, and thus, the allocation of these resources must come from a mechanism we call market and employment today. A so…

"These resources can no longer be foraged like in the days of old" - Why not?

The markets" and all that - it's artifice. Artifice to keep you busy. The scarcity is manufactured to keep you from realizing there is plenty and most people shouldn't be working.

Re: Why Americans Care About Work So Much

#64

Post by analognoise » Sat, Apr 01, 2023, 8:39 PM UTC

renewiltord wrote: post #44

nine_zeros wrote: post #4

I really want to quit but then who's going to pay for my wife's pregnancy? Healthcare and mandatory expenses can destroy one's life in America.

If you're poor, the pregnancy healthcare in Austin, TX is pretty good. So the answer is: the rest of us. That's probably for the best since you and your wife are going to spend the next two decades constructing another active labor force member - every one of whom is precious to us as a society.

"every one of whom is precious to us as a society."

This is demonstrably false - we have had how many school shootings this year? We have a "light truck exemption" that kills pedestrians and makes our vehicles an ever heavier competition (nobody wants to drive a small car if everyone else has a tank). We have the worst life expectancy of all rich nations - by a LONG shot. Our neonatal care is atrocious. We have no maternity leave. "Kids can work in meat packing plants at 14" is being honestly discussed.

Kids are a talisman, invoked to do anything except actually help them.

Re: Why Americans Care About Work So Much

#65

Post by hezralig » Sat, Apr 01, 2023, 9:45 PM UTC

scruple wrote: post #25

hezralig wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quick question, if in America you are only 3 bad months away from being homeless, are you 3 good months away from being a billionaire?

Of course not. The average American isn't even 3 months away from being a millionaire. But I've been homeless and today I don't think I could ever experience homelessness again.

Good for you. I have met a few fairly successful ex-CSuites that wound up on the streets and then developed drug addictions before becoming sober, while attending some community events at the Castro Country Club (a sober space fyi). Anyone in the US can lose everything with the right combination of unfortunate events. People still declare medical bankruptcy.

Re: Why Americans Care About Work So Much

#66

Post by 8f2ab37a-ed6c » Sun, Apr 02, 2023, 1:19 AM UTC

boffinism wrote: post #26

hanniabu wrote: post #6

"Why Americans Care About Food and Shelter"

Do you think other cultures, who care less about work, care less about food and shelter? Or would you care to elaborate on why work is more necessary for food and shelter in America than in other cultures (bearing in mind that America is one of the more developed nations on earth)?

I'm guessing the family unit is more fragmented in America, and the social safety net is weaker due to rugged individualism that leads to everybody having to only worry about themselves. It's a spectrum of course, but it feels that in the US being poor is scarier than in other first world countries, which might lead to one working longer and harder to ensure a softer landing on the way down.

Re: Why Americans Care About Work So Much

#67

Post by jongjong » Sun, Apr 02, 2023, 1:31 AM UTC

s1mplicissimus wrote: post #21

jongjong wrote: post #19

Regardless of how people feel about work, no government agency should ever aim for job creation as a goal. The irony of modern life is that it's often people who don't need to work who enjoy work the most... The game is fun to them mostly because it's rigged in their favor. On the other side, when the game is rigged against you, it's hard to think of anything worse. If I could get the same salary as I do now to liter…

sounds like you need a timeout. i know that feeling from burnout. not a doctor etc.

I was very optimistic in the first 5 years of my career, but for the last 7 years, whenever I started anything, I've had a feeling deep down that it wasn't going to work out financially. I still pushed through and produced some high quality projects but almost nobody uses them. My projects just cannot get any attention, no matter how good they are and how much positive feedback I get from those few people who do try them. Some of them do the exact same thing as some existing, proven multi-million dollar projects, yet I cannot even get a tiny sliver of their market share. I'm at a point where I'm paralyzed and afraid to start anything, afraid to even try to raise funding (I've been rejected hundreds of times). I know I will be rejected as soon as I start applying for funding; I feel that these funding application forms are designed intentionally to waste my time (and the time of people like me) and that there is 0 chance I will get funding no matter what I put there. The feeling is visceral. It's not about the projects, it's all about me. The elite don't want me to succeed.

I feel like if someone else who is elite-approved had launched my projects and did everything exactly as I did, they would have been wildly successful just because they're not me.

I'm now behaving similarly as these people who just procrastinate, complain and never try anything except in my case, I have so many failed multi-year projects under my belt. I look at any successful person with suspicion. They must have special connections; they must be elite-approved.

Re: Why Americans Care About Work So Much

#68

Post by pianoben » Sun, Apr 02, 2023, 7:53 PM UTC

pyuser583 wrote: post #38

pianoben wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I grew up attending an explicitly irreligious "church" which provided stimulation, moral instruction, community - all the things about church that really matter to one's life, but minus dogma. Maybe you could find something similar? (it was the Ethical Society in St. Louis, MO, in case you're curious)

Does it offer day care?

I haven't gone there since I was a child; I'm 40 and live in another state now. I understand that they have a web site - maybe they have that info there!