Posted on 02/25/2019 6:28:14 PM PST by daniel1212
For the college-educated elite, work has morphed into a religious identitypromising 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 werent 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 dont tell the whole story. Rich, college-educated peopleespecially menwork 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 thats 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 isnt economic at all. Its emotionaleven 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: Its where they feel most themselves. For many of todays rich there is no such thing as leisure; in the classic sensework 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 ...
Keynes was a dirtbag who didn’t have a clue.
Keynes was a dirtbag who didn’t have a clue.
And farmers put far more time in then the wannabe execs do. But the former had a life besides works, with church and family, while the yuppies is likely to have neither, or least not the latter till age 35. My dad, a welder, worked 3 jobs concurrently for a time, but when home Sat. morning it often was, "Dad, tell us a war story (again)."
Great reference.
Lazy bastards. Look up the work ethic of Karl Marx, it will surprise you.
Well said Daniel. I will have to look up Ms. Ashley Whillans. Thank You for posting. Very interesting.
I did not write this, but sometimes the Atlantic has some provocative social commentary I think may be fit for FR.
I worked double the hours because I wanted the thing to prosper, to succeed, the product and the team. Loved my wife and kids and always talking with my Jesus. Then I homeschooled...for the same reasons. Go figure....again.
One of those clocks like the Ntl. debt clock but which shows the % of tax paying producers vs. able bodied welfare takers would be useful.
Would like to blame reading on my phone, but I am just dense ;P
Yes, they do make a good point here.
Good for you. Work six days a week, never taken a cent from anyone I did not repay and never a cent from Sam. We can be proud and don’t need anyone to verify it. Our lives belie our faith.
I think people work more because things cost more, and wages aren’t keeping up, at least in some sectors of the job market. And yeah, taxes are part of it.
I hate how people in my subculture worship what people do and their work. And what their kids will do. Some of them are not kind or nice people and yet the subculture involves a religion based on kindness. They dont even get the irony.
Luckily I started with Dennis Prager when my first was 3, and I realized it was more important for me that my children were GOOD, more important even than happy or successful. I pray they reach all three, of course. Dennis Prager hit me at the right time to affect the way I parented.
Good post!
And yet, this minority of the world produces 24% of global GDP and accounts for 37% of the world's $69 trillion in equity market value and 43% of corporate bond market capitalization.
We didn't get here via a 35-hour work week.
I worked from 17 to 65. First for a car and weekend. Gradually for a truck a family and a house. Then for a tractor some ground and to build my own home. Not in offices but power plants, construction, and military service. I spent a lot of time thinking it sucked, but Im retired now. I wish I was 20 years younger and working again. Dad told me I would, as usual he is right.
What kids?
NowUKnow: Why Millennials Refuse to Get Married A recent piece in Time Magazine was headlined, Why 25 percent of millennials will never get married a new report from Pew Research predicts that more folks under 35 will be single forever."
Young couples are opting to live together and put off marriage for later, if at all. About a quarter of unmarried young adults (ages 25 to 34) are living with a partner, according to Pew Research analysis of Current Population Survey data.
Today an unprecedented portion of millennials will remain unmarried through age 40, a recent Urban Institute report predicted. The marriage rate might drop to 70 percent -- a figure well below rates for boomers (91 percent), late boomers (87 percent) and Gen Xers (82 percent). And declines might be even sharper if marriage rates recover slowly, or not at all, from pre-recession levels, according to the report.
Before the Pill, you had children as God-given nature was designed to do, and which mean sacrifice on the part of parent and kids, which were more than 1.6, and thus taught you to put up with things. And there was more real things to put up with, versus being triggered by a MAGA hat.
Now, if a Yuppy has kids it is likely to only be when of if after they marry, the couple feels they can "afford it," meaning with not too much sacrifice. And they the kids are likely to be spoiled and fearful, and brainwashed by their media baby sitters.
Sad and tragic, a country forsakes God is gone under. .
Millennials Are More 'Generation Me' Than 'Generation We,' Study Finds
Actually it's rather common. I forgot to state in my comments "I did not write this," but even then many do not read the comment or the linked article (FR has a 300 word limit.) But thanks for your comment.
He was not alone. Did he get the coming world without oil right?
I understand what you’re saying.
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