[DoodleBob]

People should be as mentally healthy as possible. That said, this piece seems to be an attempt to weaken America's awesome individualism and the attendant economic and social benefits.

It's now a weakness if you work hard. Toxic cicgenity or masculinity or whatever. Go to therapy. Go home, take a Xanax, and watch cats on Tik Tok. Meanwhile, some statist who's in on the scam, takes that promotion.

I've posted this before. All that American "workaholism" works.

America makes up 4% of the world's population...

...and yet we crank out 24% of the planet's GDP.

And while we are at the top of the Countries that Consume the Most Oil (2020 barrels per day)

United States — 17,178,000
China — 14,225,000
India — 4,669,000
Saudi Arabia — 3,544,000
Japan — 3,268,000
Russia — 3,238,000
South Korea — 2,560,000
Brazil — 2,323,000
Canada — 2,282,000
— Germany 2,045,000

...we also top the list of Countries with the Highest Oil Production (barrels per day)

United States - 11,567,000
Russia - 10,503,000
Saudi Arabia - 10,225,000
Canada - 4,656,000
Iraq - 4,260,000
China - 3,969,000
United Arab Emirates - 2,954,000
Brazil - 2,852,000
Kuwait - 2,610,000
Iran - 2,546,000

Thus, we Americans, making up only 4% of the planet's headcount, produce about a quarter of GDP - punching way above our weight. In relative contrast, China is a joke.

And if THAT wasn't cool enough, America's 4% of the population is at the top of the equity market food chain:

And, of course, we win the gun race by a mile...

....but we're not losing the murder race.

As for the national debt, we have trillions in untapped oil and gas and mineral resources. IER estimated the worth of the government’s oil and gas technically recoverable resources to the economy to be about 8 times our national debt.

Obviously, everything in balance. Subbing on addiction for another is bad. But ride the brakes when going into a turn, don't stop and turn around.

[AppyPappy]

Not having money would give me depression and anxiety.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Intersting data. For that last chart, “gun homicide rate,” if you took out black killings in the cities, we’d be half of that rate (actually probably a lot less than half).

[EvilCapitalist]

Whenever there is overtime to be had at work, by bosses always ask me first. I have less depression and anxiety when I know my bank account is getting fatter.

[lee martell]

I would speculate that this phenomenon of ‘Workaholism” has been going on in some form for many centuries.
Think of the farmers who spent way too much time plowing and tending their crops when they didn’t really need to.
They could have spent more of that time with their wives, children or Poker Pals. But there was the compulsion to get the job done, followed by the satisfaction that you are providing for your family. A sort of benign addiction.

[Bob434]

i think there is a connection between WOKAHOLICS ™ and early diseases caused by stress and pearl clutching over everything-

[daniel1212]

Helpful stats, thanks. And even way back in 2007

Upwards Leisure Mobility: Americans Work Less and Have More LeisureTime than Ever Before August 31, 2007 10 min read Download Report Many people believe that Americans are overworked, but new research shows that Americans are spending less time at work and more time at leisure than ever before. That research's key conclusions: Since the mid-1960s, the amount of time that the typical American spends working fell by almost eight hours per week.. - https://www.heritage.org/jobs-and-labor/report/upwards-leisure-mobility-americans-work-less-and-have-more-leisuretime-ever

But of course, Google proved the second top search result for American leisure time heritage as

The rise of leisure time inequality - White Hutchinson https://www.whitehutchinson.com › leisure › articles › r... american leisure time heritage from www.whitehutchinson.com Although more highly educated adults have less leisure time than adults with ... there is an increasing leisure inequality between low-educated (12 or less years of schooling) and high-educated adults (some college or more than 12 years of schooling).

Then at #3:

Heritage, Tourism, and Race; The Other Side of Leisure

And #4:

Factors Influencing African American Leisure Time Utilization ...

Rather than being greateful for the "injustice" of being born in an era of unprecedented high standard of living, being blessed with an environment of material comforts and tools unknown for about 6,000+ years of human history. Yet the poor having less leisure (aside from the indolent) is a historical constant as European immigrants had to overcome wrongful prejudice and discrimination, which has vastly decreased.

But in order to obtain power (and often esp. for many women, justify a life purpose without children) a Western liberal tends to be one who has a sneaking suspicion, that somehow, everyone everywhere in traditional society is engaging in racism, and which must be magnified, while racism is exactly what they promote under the premise of combating it as saviors of the oppressed.

[shotgun]

My decompression time is when I’m scooping up horse crap on my farm. It doesn’t take any thought to scoop and dump so it allows my mind to just wander.

[discostu]

I don’t think the article is saying working hard is a weakness. It’s saying don’t use work to hide from real life. For one thing working long hours and working hard aren’t the same thing. Actually the people I know who have spent the most hours at work tend to get the least done. And no matter how long you spend at work whatever your real world problems are will still be waiting for you, and they might be getting worse depending on how the spouse and kids feel about you pulling 100 hour weeks.

Workaholism isn’t productive. That’s just being at the office a lot. Getting a lot accomplished is productive. And that MIGHT involve extra hours. But it doesn’t have to.

[RoosterRedux]

Amen.

Some people are just prone to depression. That's just life. Deep thinkers are prone to depression because some things about life are simply depressing. For better or worse, I have always been one of those.

The best solutions for me are to work a lot, exercise a lot, and stay busy until bedtime.

Believe me, there's still plenty of time left over to be depressed. But depression is more manageable because you are in better physical condition, you are getting new skills, and either making more money or headed in that direction.

For those of you who have kids who are prone to depression, exercise (particularly cardio) works wonders. Start gently and easily and work your way up.

As an aside, I know some great guys who work a lot because their homelife is awful.

That's also depressing.

[Vaduz]

Don’t stop and turn around.

Check

[RoosterRedux]

For what it's worth, everyone is crazy in their own way. They're not dangerous, for the most part, but they are still, let's just say, unique. That's what makes life interesting.

It is a good thing to deal with your issues...no doubt about that. But sometimes your issues are who you are, the life you've got, and the way you're made.

Depression is a lot easier to deal with when you lighten up about it.

I learned when I was a child that those really dark periods only lasted about 3 days and were always followed by a really decent "up" period. And I also noticed that I almost always learned something important during the bleak periods.

As they say, "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger."

[zeestephen]

If you enjoy your job, if you enjoy working productively, you are rarely depressed or anxious.

If the business is in trouble or failing, then you might be depressed or anxious, but you never lose your general optimism or your energy.

[Grampa Dave]

The talented and hard working women on both sides of our family seem to have the hardest time in totally retiring.

The men often take an early retirement and work a few days a week in jobs they like and often which came to the guys.

Then, when in their late 60’s or early 70’s they quit working for money.

Business travel even non airplane travel soon becomes a no go. For these guys.

The women often go into their own business or become a senior partner and work until their 70’s. We men joke that they don’t want to be home with independent guys in their 60~70’s.

We are seeing that pattern in both sides of our family even with non DNA male relatives.

The pattern seems to be hard working males get into their mid 50’s, and they slow down or limit their work %.

Our women often increase their hours/time with their own business or whatever business they are in. All of them work until they turn 70. A wake up call came last year. When one of our hard working SIL’s in her retirement job developed adult leukemia and died in a few months.

One reason many of the women keep working and plan to keep working is to have health insurance after/when their husbands “retire”.

We feel that within 1-2 years most of the working males in our family and in their mid 50s- to early 60’s will retire and maybe work part time. Their wives will probably continue to work at least part time for a decade. This has happened with one of my wife’s nieces. Their kids are out of college with good jobs. Her husband got a great early out offer.

He retired last year and didn’t work for 6 months. Now he does the upkeep on their rental properties and works for a few old friends or relatives. He is a double engineer and has worked on houses/homes with his Dad, since he was a teen. He is now a role model for a lot of cousins in their 50’s cousins.

We have a few male relatives in their 50’s. If their jobs or bosses become B$, they will pull the plug on full time work.

Then, they will be part of the vast and growing part time job workers for seasoned workers.

[Fury]

Could be worse.

In Japan, lots of OT at the jobs my stepdaughter has worked. And depending on the agency / company - its time and a quarter, not time and a half. That includes a big company like NTT.

[Jim W N]

Palliative vs. curative treatment of the problem

Palliative is OK as long as it isn’t used to substitute for the curative solution

[bethelgrad]

Working is therapeutic for me. I don’t do well when I have too much free time

[Albion Wilde]

bump