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Take Back Your Time!
pycnanthemum writes "Today is national Take Back Your Time Day. Boston.com has a story about it, it's a Seattle-based movement to get overworked Americans to value the non-material parts of their lives. When I read the article I thought of a lot of techies I know."
I read the article and while it seemed to be all happy happy it was really just a cover for promoting socialism. Look at their goals : national health care, mandatory 4 week vacation, no mandatory overtime. This is just socialism. If you want to "take back your time" then spend less and live below your means. Being socialists of course they did not want to touch the number one reason that people work more hours and that families have to be dual income : taxes!. Most people work several months a year just to pay for bloated government.
Stuart Eichert
>>Those who choose to work hard will be succesfull anywhere.
No. Not at all. Some points for you to consider:
France PROHIBITS people in many industries from working more than 35 hours per week. They actually have a police force which inspects employee parking lots to observe whether cars are present after "official" work hours and whether people take work home with them. Citizens have a "right" to theatre tickets, but don't have a right to decide how hard to work, at their own choice! America accepts a huge number of French ex-patriots that have decided to emigrate to a place where their hard work pays off.
How is one expected to build wealth and improve their standard of living in a Socialist nation?
How can one be successful where the tax burden exceeds 70% (as do some EU states)? Why would anyone bother to work hard if they're penalized for the extra effort? "That's one for you, nineteen for me 'Cause I'm the Taxman" is more than just the lyrics to a song, you realize.
>>I wouldn't call the inner-city slums in America a great success
Nor would I. However, what percentage of those living in America's slums and ghettos make an effort to leave and/or radically change their lifestyle? Many of the poor stay poor because of their choices. Buying cigarettes, beer and Camaros, watching Pro Wrestling instead of PBS, and reading sports illustrated instead of a textbook doesn't make for a bright future. Pack a bag and move where the jobs are. Get a job -- and job -- and keep it until you have an offer for a better one. Learn everything you can about everything you can. Do more than is expected of you, try harder and work harder and success will come. Success takes hard work, lots of it. It's not politically correct, but that's just the brutal truth. The rich get richer because they keep doing the things that made them successful in the first place, and vice-versa. I, and several people I know, are living proof. And I can recount related stories of failure.
How many of those people are dependant on the government for their incomes? The "War On Poverty" has only increased the percentage on the dole -- it made the problem worse! The inner cities and the Welfare State are evidence of this.
>>and I wouldn't call the states' lack of funding for education a sucess
What "lack of funding" are you talking about? $11,000 per student per year spent in many states for government k-12 school isn't enough? Good God, man, that's enough for a semester at Duke University!! The results of these "poor, underfunded" schools are stunning, too -- 1/3 drop out and apalling literacy rates even among the so-called "graduates." I think many of the students would be better off if we didn't even try to educate them -- just put the $120,000 in a bank account and give it to them when they turn 18 so they can live off the interest. The ones who want to learn will figure out a way to educate themselves. It's tough, but at least with that approach the ones who have no education at all will have something to live on rather than the current situation -- $120,000 spent and nothing to show for it.
>>nor would I call the lack of universal health care a success.
What?!? I would say that they fact that we've avoided creating a socialist bottleneck in our medical system is a triumph! I could travel to almost any hospital in America and, if medically necessary, get an MRI, TODAY, whether or not I'm financially capable (responsible?) for the costs. Try that in Canada or England -- you'll wait for weeks. There's no way I want my medical decisions made by the same bureaucrats that set up the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Internal Revenue Service.
>>Different people, different measures for success, but I'll still dare you to find a person who is at the wrong end of your successful system to agree with you.
The difference is that in America, with enough hard work, you can move from one end of the financial spectrum to the other. I've done so, and so can others. It's not easy, but it's *possible*.
So I win the dare. Now what? Are you open-minded enough to admit that there are alternatives to your worldview that *just might* be correct?