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Your lifestyle has already been designed
Posted on 6/27/14 at 7:47 am
Posted on 6/27/14 at 7:47 am
The Real Reason For The Forty-Hour Work Week
Less time on our hands, and yet just enough to spend the money we make to satisfy a need we feel we have, which of course is brought on by the need to work our lives away.
Not sure about you, but I think most people are like this. The more we all make, the more we spend for a variety of different reasons, not the least of which is really need oriented.
BTW... The whole TLDR is a part of this time vacuum as well.
quote:
But the 8-hour workday is too profitable for big business, not because of the amount of work people get done in eight hours (the average office worker gets less than three hours of actual work done in 8 hours) but because it makes for such a purchase-happy public. Keeping free time scarce means people pay a lot more for convenience, gratification, and any other relief they can buy. It keeps them watching television, and its commercials. It keeps them unambitious outside of work.
We’ve been led into a culture that has been engineered to leave us tired, hungry for indulgence, willing to pay a lot for convenience and entertainment, and most importantly, vaguely dissatisfied with our lives so that we continue wanting things we don’t have. We buy so much because it always seems like something is still missing.
Western economies, particularly that of the United States, have been built in a very calculated manner on gratification, addiction, and unnecessary spending. We spend to cheer ourselves up, to reward ourselves, to celebrate, to fix problems, to elevate our status, and to alleviate boredom.
quote:
You may have heard of Parkinson’s Law. It is often used in reference to time usage: the more time you’ve been given to do something, the more time it will take you to do it. It’s amazing how much you can get done in twenty minutes if twenty minutes is all you have. But if you have all afternoon, it would probably take way longer.
quote:
All of America’s well-publicized problems, including obesity, depression, pollution and corruption are what it costs to create and sustain a trillion-dollar economy. For the economy to be “healthy”, America has to remain unhealthy. Healthy, happy people don’t feel like they need much they don’t already have, and that means they don’t buy a lot of junk, don’t need to be entertained as much, and they don’t end up watching a lot of commercials.
The culture of the eight-hour workday is big business’ most powerful tool for keeping people in this same dissatisfied state where the answer to every problem is to buy something.
Less time on our hands, and yet just enough to spend the money we make to satisfy a need we feel we have, which of course is brought on by the need to work our lives away.
Not sure about you, but I think most people are like this. The more we all make, the more we spend for a variety of different reasons, not the least of which is really need oriented.
BTW... The whole TLDR is a part of this time vacuum as well.
This post was edited on 6/27/14 at 7:51 am
Posted on 6/27/14 at 7:50 am to Mike da Tigah
I'm not adhering to that. I work around the confines of a 40 hour week but I keep my free time as plentiful as possible.
Posted on 6/27/14 at 7:51 am to Mike da Tigah
quote:
Less time on our hands, and yet just enough to spend the money we make to satisfy a need we feel we have, which of course is brought on by the need to work our lives away.
I do think people would be happier if they were given a task driven employment rather than one contingent upon the number of hours you work.
Posted on 6/27/14 at 7:59 am to elprez00
quote:
I do think people would be happier if they were given a task driven employment rather than one contingent upon the number of hours you work.
Posted on 6/27/14 at 7:59 am to Mike da Tigah
Not this kid's problem:
Posted on 6/27/14 at 8:01 am to Motorboat
quote:
I'm not adhering to that.
quote:
I work around the confines of a 40 hour week
wat
Posted on 6/27/14 at 8:08 am to illuminatic
I meant to say I find away around a traditional 40 hour week. I'll work 3 or four full days a week and take a long weekend. I end up working 50 or so hours all week but not in the traditional 8-5 M-F grind.
Posted on 6/27/14 at 8:16 am to Motorboat
so instead of doing what the man says and working your 40 hours, you stick it to him by working 50
Posted on 6/27/14 at 8:18 am to link
quote:
so instead of doing what the man says and working your 40 hours, you stick it to him by working 50
Yeah but I justify it by playing just as hard in my time off
Posted on 6/27/14 at 8:25 am to Motorboat
quote:
Yeah but I justify it by playing just as hard in my time off
Can you sustain that long term though?
Posted on 6/27/14 at 8:38 am to Mike da Tigah
a lot of truth in there
Posted on 6/27/14 at 8:38 am to Mike da Tigah
quote:
Can you sustain that long term though?
I'm trying my damnest.
Posted on 6/27/14 at 8:42 am to Motorboat
quote:
I'm trying my damnest.
I hope you do.
Posted on 6/27/14 at 8:53 am to Motorboat
quote:
Yeah but I justify it by playing just as hard in my time off
Isn't that what the article is trying to say? We play hard (i.e., spend money on entertainment) in order to make ourselves feel happier from the soul crushing 40-50 hr. work week
Posted on 6/27/14 at 8:53 am to Mike da Tigah
This touches on the very reason I want to leave this country and go live in the islands. I want to live in peace and be happy with my surroundings. I can easily do away with the materialistic things we live with. I don't need a TV, don't need a BMW, a big house, none of it.
Fortunately I've recently made a career change that can get me to this eventually. The 40+ hour work weeks doing the same things over and over again are winding down for me. In the next 2, maybe 3, years I will be chilling pool side on call. I've already had these conversations with the business owner and told him I want to cover the Caribbean region. Bahamas, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, just bounce around between them as I'm needed.
Fortunately I've recently made a career change that can get me to this eventually. The 40+ hour work weeks doing the same things over and over again are winding down for me. In the next 2, maybe 3, years I will be chilling pool side on call. I've already had these conversations with the business owner and told him I want to cover the Caribbean region. Bahamas, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, just bounce around between them as I'm needed.
Posted on 6/27/14 at 8:57 am to Mike da Tigah
quote:
the average office worker gets less than three hours of actual work done in 8 hours)
hahaha if that. I'm working on 0 on this Friday. mwahahahaha I'm sticking it to the man.
Posted on 6/27/14 at 9:01 am to Hu_Flung_Pu
quote:
the average office worker gets less than three hours of actual work done in 8 hours)
hahaha if that. I'm working on 0 on this Friday. mwahahahaha I'm sticking it to the man.
Pretty much, mostly because I'm new and they won't give me anything to do. They pulled me out of training to help with some work that was overwhelming on of their guys, but I finished that on Monday. Now, it seems as if they want me here to help when they need me, but there's not enough work for me to stay busy, but they don't want to send me back to training yet so I can learn how to do different stuff I haven't learned yet. Weird.
Posted on 6/27/14 at 9:04 am to Mike da Tigah
I've known this for a while, especially looking at the differences between Europe and Asia's schedule. It's more about the culture of the people. Fortunately I don't really have those hours though.
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