The New York Times: Opinion | Why Do We Work So Damn Much?.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/29/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-james-suzman.html
Why do we work so damn much?
nytimes.com
Why do we work so damn much?
1–10 of 69 posts
Re: Why do we work so damn much?
#2Posted as text but should be a link post.
Re: Why do we work so damn much?
#3Because we want stuff.
Re: Why do we work so damn much?
#4Inflation, cost of living. Families, social comparison. America life is built like a never ending hamster wheel.
Re: Why do we work so damn much?
#5The power of the capitalist class, the lack of social supports, the weakness of organized labor, etc.
Re: Why do we work so damn much?
#6Inflation, cost of living. Families, social comparison. America life is built like a never ending hamster wheel.
This. Follow the money (follow the white rabbit). We don’t know how to unplug from the financial/social Matrix.
Morpheus:
What you know you can't explain, but you feel it. You've felt it your entire life, that there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad.
Re: Why do we work so damn much?
#7"hunter-gatherer societies like the Ju/’hoansi spent only about 15 hours a week meeting their material needs despite being deeply impoverished by modern standards."
I don't understand the "despite" in the above sentence. The more they would work to meet their material needs, the less impoverished they would become, no?
Re: Why do we work so damn much?
#8Because we want stuff.
Not so. In the US, your health insurance is often tied to your employment. You often don't get health insurance unless you work full time. Full time is always 40 hours or more. That isn't a whole lot more productive than 32 hours, but employers benefit by having fewer employees work more rather than more employees working less, because of costs like health insurance.
I think it's quite a bit more complicated than "because we want stuff"--I'd say it's because we're serfs for the ultra wealthy.
Re: Why do we work so damn much?
#9Well, it’s easy to see the result. There are plenty of countries with high unemployment (especially among youth). Take Greece for example. Their economy isn’t doing so great relative to a country with high employment - Canada, USA, Germany, France, UK. Work hard if you want to have the highest standard of living.
Re: Why do we work so damn much?
#10Why do many millionaires and billionaires continue to work super hard? People on TV, people in power, they are set for life financially and yet they still work.
It's because just like the rest of us - it's what we do. We don't know how not to work without feeling like we should be doing something 'productive'. It's more cultural than anything else.