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Why do we work so damn much?

nytimes.com

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Re: Why do we work so damn much?

#21

Post by cbozeman »

dsauerbrun wrote: post #11
theonemind wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 "be…

you can pay for health insurance if you don't have a job. I've done that many times in between jobs; it's totally feasible for single people. I was paying between $250-$320 per month as a healthy 30 year old. most jobs I've had only cover 50% of the healthcare premiums so big whoop... I'm saving $150/mo by getting health care through my job... the money isn't worth needing a job. this may not be the experience for pe…

Everything you just wrote, right down to the dollar amounts, exemplifies just how privileged you are, and 'privilege' is a word I hate and almost never use, but it is the correct and appropriate word here.

The majority - as in > 50% - of Americans can't afford to be "between jobs" for months, or even a single month at a time. And they certainly can't afford rates that are 2-4 times $250 - $320 jobs. The majority of Americans can't even afford a $500 emergency.

Re: Why do we work so damn much?

#22

Post by dragonsky67 »

likecarter wrote: post #9

Well, 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.

More toys. Everybody must have more toys. Work hard and have more toys, even if you won't have enough time to play with them.

Re: Why do we work so damn much?

#23

Post by _delirium »

trixie_ wrote: post #10

Why 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.

Do they? When I think of very rich people, I mostly think of people who don't work. Sam Walton (who died in 1992) did real work to build his business empire, but his half-dozen multi-billionaire heirs don't work at anything that could be considered a real job.

Re: Why do we work so damn much?

#24

Post by cirrus3 »

The article seems to answer the question right up front.

> as we’ve gotten richer and built more technology, we’ve developed a machine not for ending our wants, not for fulfilling them, but for generating new ones, new needs, new desires, new forms of status competition.

> You can’t solve the problem of scarcity with our current system because our current system is designed to generate endlessly the feeling of more scarcity within us. It needs that. And so we keep working harder and harder and feeling like we have less and less, even amidst quite a bit of plenty, at least, for many of us.

Re: Why do we work so damn much?

#25

Post by MrStonedOne »

barnaclejive wrote: post #19
Blackstone4 wrote: post #15

I meet plenty of professionals who despite having made millions and could retire, still work. Why? I believe a large part of their identity and self-worth is tied up in their work and net worth… they get respect and power… their roles give them a position in society. For many, they get used to the amount of money they’ve made but it’s never enough. The type of personality that drove them to work hard and become rich…

Imagine reading this and extracting out a perspective focusing on why millionaires keep working. Hard cringe.

Millionaires don't need to work, yet still do, so looking at them provides a unique view into the human condition.

Re: Why do we work so damn much?

#26

Post by nine_k »

trixie_ wrote: post #10

Why 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.

Some of them can be enjoying it — like playing sports is hard and exhausting, but you play anyway because of the excitement and the feeling of accomplishment is produces.

These people who made themselves stars or billionaires achieved that much because they love the process. If they wanted to just pleasantly slack out, they won't need to go that far in securing their income, they would stop much, much earlier, maybe even at the welfare level.

Re: Why do we work so damn much?

#28

Post by nobody0 »

Idleness is difficult to deal with for many people in an easily influenced and constantly distraction luring society.

When you finally stop, you are about to admit maybe painstakingly your own exsistence.

Re: Why do we work so damn much?

#29

Post by seibelj »

trixie_ wrote: post #10

Why 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.

At a macro-level it’s the answer to why we have enormous buildings, cities, and went to the moon. Why people keep doing anything rather than nothing. Why we have complex societies rather than hunter gatherer lives.

As a species we don’t want to do nothing.

There is a recent EconTalk podcast on the concept on “freedom” which may be very interesting to people who have read this far in my comment. It touches on how we got to this point in human evolution https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/econtalk/id135066958?i...

Re: Why do we work so damn much?

#30

Post by nine_k »

_delirium wrote: post #23
trixie_ wrote: post #10

Why 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.

Do they? When I think of very rich people, I mostly think of people who don't work. Sam Walton (who died in 1992) did real work to build his business empire, but his half-dozen multi-billionaire heirs don't work at anything that could be considered a real job.

It only applies to people who made themselves very rich, not were born rich. The same impulse that pushed them to the Everest of wealth keeps on pushing them.

Nothing can be said about heirs of large inheritances; some may care much enough to achieve something, but most would likely not, like most people.

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