Posted on 02/25/2019 6:28:14 PM PST by daniel1212
For the college-educated elite, work has morphed into a religious identity—promising identity, transcendence, and community, but failing to deliver...
In his 1930 essay “Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren,” the economist John Maynard Keynes predicted a 15-hour workweek in the 21st century, creating the equivalent of a five-day weekend... In a 1957 article in The New York Times, the writer Erik Barnouw predicted that, as work became easier, our identity would be defined by our hobbies, or our family life...
These post-work predictions weren’t entirely wrong. By some counts, Americans work much less than they used to. The average work year has shrunk by more than 200 hours. But those figures don’t tell the whole story. Rich, college-educated people—especially men—work more than they did many decades ago...
No large country in the world as productive as the United States averages more hours of work a year. And the gap between the U.S. and other countries is growing...In 1980, the highest-earning men actually worked fewer hours per week than middle-class and low-income men, according to a survey by the Minneapolis Fed. But that’s changed. By 2005, the richest 10 percent of married men had the longest average workweek. ...
Perhaps long hours are part of an arms race for status and income among the moneyed elite. Or maybe the logic here isn’t economic at all. It’s emotional—even spiritual. The best-educated and highest-earning Americans, who can have whatever they want, have chosen the office for the same reason that devout Christians attend church on Sundays: It’s where they feel most themselves. “For many of today’s rich there is no such thing as ‘leisure’; in the classic sense—work is their play,” the economist Robert Frank wrote. “Building wealth to them is a creative process, and the closest thing they have to fun.”..
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
Finding meaning at work beats family and kindness as the top ambition of today’s young people....
Without work, including nonsalaried labor like raising a child, most people tend to feel miserable. Some evidence suggests that long-term unemployment is even more wrenching than losing a loved one, since the absence of an engaging distraction removes the very thing that tends to provide solace to mourners in the first place.
There is nothing wrong with work, when work must be done. And there is no question that an elite obsession with meaningful work will produce a handful of winners who hit the workist lottery: busy, rich, and deeply fulfilled. But a culture that funnels its dreams of self-actualization into salaried jobs is setting itself up for collective anxiety, mass disappointment, and inevitable burnout...
But our desks were never meant to be our altars. The modern labor force evolved to serve the needs of consumers and capitalists, not to satisfy tens of millions of people seeking transcendence at the office...
On a deeper level, Americans have forgotten an old-fashioned goal of working: It’s about buying free time. The vast majority of workers are happier when they spend more hours with family, friends, and partners, according to research conducted by Ashley Whillans, an assistant professor at Harvard Business School.
Excerpts from long article here which provides some social commentary I thought some would find interesting.
Pure unadulterated crap.
“In his 1930 essay “Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren,” the economist John Maynard Keynes predicted a 15-hour workweek in the 21st century, creating the equivalent of a five-day weekend...”
He was spot-on! Average out the hours we work, and for all of us busting out humps there are those doing nothing at all; probably averages out to 15-hour workweeks all around!
The real problem is that economic uncertainty (primarily due to globalism) have forced people to invest much more in their jobs if they want to keep them...
What a nasty, far lefty moron this gut is!
15-hour workweek
Half a week off made me and the wife crazy trying to stay entertained.
an explosion of new atheisms
Good for you. Same here.
On a deeper level, Americans have forgotten an old-fashioned goal of working: It’s about buying free time. The vast majority of workers are happier when they spend more hours with family, friends, and partners, according to research conducted by Ashley Whillans, an assistant professor at Harvard Business School."
Well said Daniel.
I will have to look up Ms. Ashley Whillans.
Thank You for posting. Very interesting.
40% of work time is wage slavery for the benefit of the gov’t.
Takers spend 0% of their time working for the gov’t.
Total Social Injustice.
5 of their time working for the Gov’t.
“And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: ‘If you don’t work you die.’”
http://www.eliteskills.com/c/1460
40% of Maker worker time is wage slavery for the benefit of the gov’t.
Takers spend 0% of their time working for the gov’t.
Total Social Injustice.
I put in a 60 hour work week 26 weeks a year and was well paid. it was worth it but I had no kids. I’m the rich uncle. Better than the crazy aunt.
People are not at home. Who’s raising the kids?
I understand. My career was the central focus of my life for most of it. Retiring was like a death in the family. It’s true that if you love what you do, you never work a day in your life.
John Maynard Keynes the idiot who preached a nation could tax and spend as the way to prosperity and FDR loved it.
Yes, somehow I do not think the Atlantic would like that being mentioned.
The real problem is that economic uncertainty (primarily due to globalism) have forced people to invest much more in their jobs if they want to keep them...
I think there is more to it, and it does have something to do with the job being the attempted fulfillment for an empty soul, who usually has few if any children.
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