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Why Do We Work So Hard? (1843magazine.com)
An anonymous reader points us to a fascinating piece at The Economist that tries to explain the elements that drive people to work so hard: Working effectively at a good job builds up our identity and esteem in the eyes of others. We cheer each other on, we share in (and quietly regret) the successes of our friends, we lose touch with people beyond our network. Spending our leisure time with other professional strivers buttresses the notion that hard work is part of the good life and that the sacrifices it entails are those that a decent person makes. This is what a class with a strong sense of identity does: it effortlessly recasts the group's distinguishing vices as virtues. This reminds me of an article by Om Malik, veteran reporter and founder of the GigaOm news outlet, who wrote this when announcing his retirement. From his piece: "I relate to Jeter's desire to find life outside of work. Living a 24-hour news life has come at a personal cost. I still wake in middle of the night to check the stream to see if something is breaking, worrying whether I missed some news. It is a unique type of addiction that only a few can understand, and it is time for me to opt out of this non-stop news life."
Because money improves your quality of life more than extra time does. When most people have extra time, they spend it watching TV or other similar things. When they have extra money, they can buy a bigger TV.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
From The Myth of Sysiphus by Albert Camus:
Camus in 10 Minutes
It is probably because you believe democracy to be correct, or you put the wrong person in charge. The correct person in charge should be myself. I used to be God.
If you die, you'd better give two week's notice
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
If there is another job offer that pays better than your current job but doesn't require you to work as hard, all other factors being equal, would you take it?
The article might have a point if most people would say "no" to this question. The real answer is probably too boring to make news -- most people work so hard because they want/need the money.
The hyperbole about the "virtue" of working so hard are just kool-aid from management and HR so they won't appear the villain.
Oliver.
... we work so hard mostly because without a certain level of consumption or job status our status drops in the eyes of others. It's really insane to a large extent.
One obsesses on an activity. One is addicted to drugs. Nothing else to be said.
People devoted to doing their best who aren't stopped by their employer (possibly themselves, being self-employed) will work ridiculous hours in some notion of "fun" end up fucking over their families by not really being there for them, recreating the same cycle of work before family in the next generation (or the exact opposite for children who rebel against the obvious negative of such extremes without learning that the issue is the extreme), and the economic warppage of businesses dependent on such saps pushes out other, more sensible people from the high paying professional jobs.
And note, I say this as someone who works hard at a job that I don't really enjoy. I might get some satisfaction out of a job well done, but in the end I make it clear I don't want to work more than 40 hours/week--it has happened, but it's not the norm. Yet plenty of people work overtime, long hours, etc there and do it for the money--a good indication they're actually underpaid or overly greedy. In any case, even if it were a job I enjoyed, I'd try hard to make that distinction and keep it down to a regular 40 hours/week. Because overtime doesn't give you the money to travel back and see your child's first step or be there at your kid's play*.
PS - If you don't have any kids and not much in the way of family obligation, feel free to work yourself to death if that makes you happy. I won't call you a sap then, even if it does cause economic warppage. I know I could be called a sap because I work substantially harder than the average worker. In the end, that's no the basis problem and merely a side issue. The hours worked and possibly lost is the real point, especially in relationship to having a life when work isn't or shouldn't be your life.
* For me, it's actually video games and web surfing. The point here is, choosing what your selfish desire is and placing it at a higher priority than work. Work to live, not live to work. Of course, that's one reason I'd never run my own business. :) Set my own hours, my ass. It'd be 24/7 because anything less and I'd presume my company failing was me not working enough.
Because the corps we work for are paying less and less in real wages while demanding more and more of our time and effort.
Enough of the easily-brainwashed people are defending this practice and voting people into office who enact legislation protecting big businesses at the expense of workers.
We work hard because society requires us to do so. The deck is stacked against ordinary people to fight for a small share of the resources while the greedy rich people hoard a lot of it for themselves. Income inequality requires us to work hard, to survive on the scraps left behind by the greedy rich people.
until you're old and wise enough to realize "it's all just a game" and give up on the rat-race money game. then you learn to smile and nod your head in the direction of your youngers who are spritelier and dumber than you are. and you find yourself pushed into management, even if that isn't where you want to go, but you want less "on your feet" effort and a more relaxed lifestyle, such as it is on a sub-nominal minimum-middlewaged pissant position. and you find yourself living out pink floyd lyrics... too late to lose the weight you used to need to throw around; shorter of breath; one day closer to death. welcome to the endless perpetual mind-f*** that is the human condition.
The wealthy class spends billions on propaganda to convince YOU to work harder so that THEY can make profits. The productivity of USA workers is among the highest in the world and keeps going up in general, yet our wages have been flat.
That means we work our asses off and THEY get the benefits; and they want to keep it that way, for obvious reasons.
Table-ized A.I.
Simply because I love my job. If I wouldn't being paid at work to do it, I would do it has a hobby anyway. So, better be paid, than not.
Achille Talon
Hop!
People give up their families, their personal lives, their ability to see and do wonderful things so they can work to earn more money so they can get more stuff which they need work more to pay for.
Work is dumb. Only do it as long as you have too.
then find something you love doing. maybe people will give you money- but if not, you love what you are doing.
But... constant propaganda.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
"I, on the other hand, have been striving for twenty years with a minimum of intervention and without destroying our production, to arrive at a new Socialist order in Germany which not only eliminates unemployment but also permits the worker to receive an ever greater share of the fruits of his labor.
The success of this policy of economic and social reconstruction of our people, which by systematically eliminating differences of rank and class, has a true peoples' community as the final aim of the world."
-- Adolf Hitler
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
for poor attendance.
i'm sure i won't regret working more hours. doesn't matter.
I have taken a year off. Plans include travel, photography, self-development, and anything I find interesting on a day to day basis. I'm now a month and a half away from the office, and loving every moment of it.
As to why I can afford it... Because I didn't buy the biggest house I could. Because I don't own a car, TV or smartphone. Because I didn't spend every cent I earn on gadgets I don't need.
It's not just work, I know the same thing applies to sports and just about everything people do. Especially as you become good at something it draws you in and you want to go further and get better. Success at something is in a real sense addictive. Eventually you get to the point Robert Heinlein described as: "There is no way to stop. Writers go on writing long after it becomes financially unnecessary... because it hurts less to write than it does not to write."
The 70s was orientated around protecting the worker, working less, giving more profits to the worker. It created stagflation, where there were no profits for new factories or investments. The 80s was orientated around getting a middle-class job and women joining the workforce. It created massive inflation as households wallowed in 2 incomes. The 90s was a correcting period as jobs disappeared or were off-shored, with business profits going to a shrinking demographic. The 00s was flooded by the war on terror but individuals orientated around owning the latest overpriced iShiny while the cost of real assets; new houses and education, sky-rocketed.
In the 1600s, land-owners spent most of their time buying entertainment. It resulted in a keeping-up with the Jones's mentality that sent many land-owners to debtor's prison. The need to belong to a certain socio-economic group still exists while, as the preceding paragraph indicates, modern groups are defined just as much by what they own, as by what they do.
A job allows economic independence, which is why women rushed into the workforce in the '80s but the real validation is one's time (and life) has a monetary value in the world. This is a problem for stay-at-home mums: Instead of being paid, they're sacrificing their income (and indirectly their pension) to produce another taxpayer. Plus unemployed people are belittled for not fitting into the current job offerings, which are few because low-skilled jobs and the 7-hour workday have disappeared,
A mentor of mine, consummate if ever there was one, had worked 45 years at The Aerospace Corporation. Over his career, he had saved numerous satellite programs well over a billion dollars in total. He worked long, hard hours, dedicating every ounce of energy to The Aerospace Corporation.
He was the tops. He'd call me near the end of a fiscal year, and ask if I could spend-out $250k on supplies or equipment, for my own projects, within two or three weeks. "Spend!" one of his emails stated. That level of power, combined with the above-described level of dedication and supreme engineering insight and service.
Then he had a stroke. Within less than two months, he had been forced into retirement (no 6-month Disability leave for you!). Seriously, two months! That is the thanks that he got for saving innumerable satellite programs $100M's, amounting to over $1B in his career. A little vascular oopsie suddenly ended it all, and he was unceremoniously kicked out the door. There was a tiny, awkward "retirement" party, where he was presented with a wooden box of artifacts from his greatest satellite program achievements –worthless to him in a nursing home.
I noticed that while he was examining this 'treasure-box' to the sound of fake-happy applause from everyone at The Aerospace Corporation, no one, not even his attendant nurse, bothered to take a moment to wipe away the huge, gross erupted boil on his left temple. Its core was about 3/4-inch long, and was just lolling there on his face, while everyone took pictures and pretended that it was a celebration.
That is what you get for dedication to a corporate entity such as The Aerospace Corporation. No bonuses. No overtime. And when your body has a little glitch, you are yesterday's garbage.
All companies are like this.
PS — I cannot tell you the name of the company I worked for, but perhaps you can figure it out from the hints.
Just over five years ago, my wife and I were overjoyed to bring a baby girl into this world.
By the time she was two, she was diagnosed as autistic. Not the mild kind where the kid turns out to be really into one hobby; the more severe sort where she was markedly disabled.
So we put her into therapy, into a program that uses scientifically identified treatments; which measures every goal, every progress, and charts and records every bit of minutiae to inform further therapy. We get some government funding, but my wife and I put an extra $40k/year into her therapy of our own money. And neither of us come from wealthy backgrounds, so this isn't pocket change for us by any stretch. We get by by doing without so many of the things our own peers take for granted, including basic things like home ownership. We don't get to go out much, and don't go on fancy holidays. We don't buy things that aren't essential. We have no retirement savings.
And you know what? Our little girl has made progress. She can't speak. I clean piss and shit out of our rugs several times a day. But she is very affectionate, and loves nothing more than to hug and kiss us. She likes to lead the people she loves and trusts by the finger to her favourite toys and activities so we can play together. She loves to laugh. She has an amazing capacity for processing symbols, including letters and numbers, well above her typically developing age group. She can read and spell. She is quite surprising at her ability to use electronics, and carries an iPad with software on it to help her communicate with others. She is exceptionally happy all of the time (we count our blessings that she doesn't have any of the behavioural issues often connected to children with autism).
Beyond the therapy, we set money aside in trust for her for when she is an adult. It's unknowable at this time whether she'll be able to function independently when she's older. My wife and I are very well aware that we won't live forever, and barring any sort of tragedy she'll easily outlive us. So on top of the therapy expense, we put away what we can into investments in her name for the long term -- we're talking 15 - 80 years (based on current life expectancy). We have to plan way ahead, as we can't stomach the idea of her being placed into an institution with nothing when we're gone to dust.
(She has no siblings to help take care of her when we're gone. When your first child is disabled with a disability that most probably has a genetic component, you start having to have conversations and make decisions you would never ever have to worry about otherwise. Will the next child also be disabled? Will they be even more seriously disabled? How could we ever afford to care for two disabled children, when we just scrape by with the one we have? Can we afford to take that risk, knowing that both children may suffer because of it? The idea of having a baby shouldn't be fear inducing, and yet that's what the concept holds for my wife and I. There is currently no genetic testing the can be done for autism. We as parents can't be tested. A gestating fetus can't be tested. It's a crap-shoot, and we don't even know the odds).
So why do I work hard? I do it for her. It's her one and only chance at ever having any sort of life. I'll probably never be able to retire -- I fully expect to die at my desk. This wasn't at all what I had planned for my life, but it's the life I have before me. What's more, she's worth it. My reward is when she knows it's time to go to bed, and she leads me by the finger to her bed for a story, a song, a cuddle, and a kiss goodnight.
(Posted anonymously for obvious reasons)
I ain't kidding !
Those workaholics who used to juggle 10 jobs at any given time, by the time they truly retire, often find themselves having nothing to do
Boredom seeps in, and in a few short years, they die
This post smells like the post of a whiny millenial social justice warrior crying about "social constructs" and "capitalism" and "free enterprise" and "hard work". I'm guessing this person wants a base income -- ideally FOR THEMSELVES and not just as a concept. I smell a lazy person who hates to work and just wants to get by on someone else's ride.
I think it's all down to the protestant work ethic that's been drilled into the minds of all westerners for generations. "Work hard in this life, and you shall receive your just rewards in the next life" and so on. This was dreamed up by royalty, nobility and particularly the church, in order to keep the masses complacent and too tired to effect a proper revolt.
And then there's the just-word fallacy, that those who work hard also earn the rewards, which is demonstrably false and always has been.
Eat the rich.
Because money improves your quality of life more than extra time does.
Wrong. Beyond 'minimum' needs like food, shelter, health, security, and perhaps some good sex thrown in, income basically is disposable. What humans need beyond that is to feel loved, competent and a sense of enthusiasm for what they strive for. Which all has nothing to do with 'physical' wealth. Money in those latter areas is nothing but a shallow substitute, and mostly a bad one at that. That's why most people are quite unhappy with their lives, even though they're doing well by any outward metric. Depression is the first world disease that comes with that.
By any historic measure we live in times of infinite abundance. 80%+ of work done in first world societies are bullshit jobs and superfluos work. Most of which can be done by robots, better planing or, most of the time, simply left out all together.
I work part time for more spare-time, and while I sometimes moan that because of my compareatively lower income I have the feeling I am - to most women of my social herachy - not suitable for long-term relationship because of that (especially with the values our society to wrongly pursues), I repeatedly run into situations that can only be described as plain an utter envy over my freedom compared to my peers. By men and women alike. I'm only suitably as a dance partner and a lover to most. ... A situation I will probably have to learn to live with. ... And, yes, I'm going to cry you a river now. :-)
Conclusion:
You Sir need to get yourself a copy of the 4 Hour Workweek. Or, better yet, the original: Senecas Letters from a Stoic., read it and get a life (Hint: It is *not* about dependant income-work.) Stoicism: The optimised wester variant of zen-buddhism as you might call it. Get with the programm and start enjoying you life like never before. Welcome to the club.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
People work a lot because the hours worked are easily quantifiable. Quality (and hence productivity) is far, far harder to estimate as it actually requires understanding. At the same time, science and common sense (a rare commodity these days) tells us that people working a lot have decreased overall productivity, hence working hard is about the most stupid thing you can do or require your underlings to do.
This is not a new problem, and its root cause has been known for a very, very long time: "A good decision is based on understanding, not on numbers." (Said by Plato and doubtlessly others before him.) These days, the insight-challenged number pushers are (again) those that make the decisions. That cannot end well.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
What people say and what they do are different things. That even applies to the ones like Hitler. How do you think he managed to get so much popular support? Right, by promising things to the people that the people wanted (delivery optional). Very much like, say, Trump.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
No, extra time with my son is much better than any TV/VR/Game, and I won't let extra work take that away from me.
We used to pay people to do things we do now: pump our gas, do our laundry, etc. Not only do we work our job, we do jobs other people used to.
CDE open sourced! https://sourceforge.net/projects/cdesktopenv/
Actually, Hitler did exactly what he said he would. Within 5 years, the German worker and the German intellectual were equals. It wasn't like today where writers and artists shit all over waiters and plumbers.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
My experience in life and the workplace is that the majority of people do as little as possible.
Some of them can spend hours a day telling you how busy they are.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
After making from second lieutenant to lieutenant to captain and then may be major, the reward for job done well is more work. Meanwhile the same starting class are the slackers who don't work very hard, but also not very smart, they get stuck at lower level. But a few smart slackers manage to sneak through, getting help from hard workers, finding the hard workers and joining their team and wangling some reflected glory etc etc. These are the ones, who don't work very hard, but they have the eye for figuring out who are hard working but not so astute people. They are the ones, we want in management. We find them and promote them higher than major to lt-col, brigs level. They smartly direct lots of work to hard workers who are capable of working hard.
Of course the hard workers realize they have been had, but it would be too late. The retired majors sit in the officers club, drowning their sorrows over scotch on the rocks, will tell everyone within listening distance, "Brigadier Ramaseshan. class of 84, Rajasthan Rifles, heard of him? Let me tell you what a chump he is. Couple of years junior to me, we were..." They will be surrounded by others similar to them, "Come one, Ramaseshan is nothing. Rear Admiral Dahage, Class of 82, GOC-in-C Western Naval Command, he was once arrested by Delhi police for riding a bicycle in the Cannaught Circus into the fountain. In his pajamas! At 3 AM" "Really? I knew he was arrested, but I thought he stole a policeman's helmet or something".
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
So, we've had an industrial revolution, a technical revolution and lately the IT revolution, these should of resulted in less work, so why are people working long hours?
You could point out that people used to work 60-70 hours per week, but I'd point out in return that those people likely lived a few minutes away from where they worked and so the situation is nearly as bad now as it was a hundred years ago if you take commuting in to account. Salaried workers are working 49 hours per week and often commuting 10+ hours per week.
If the French can live comfortably with a 35 hour working week then why can't the rest of us?
Waterfox - a Firefox fork with legacy extension support, security updates and better privacy by default.
Except there's not a clearly defined boundary line that a person crosses at a certain income level.
http://content.time.com/time/m...
The study doesn't say why $75,000 is the benchmark, but "it does seem to me a plausible number at which people would think money is not an issue," says Deaton. At that level, people probably have enough expendable cash to do things that make them feel good, like going out with friends. (The federal poverty level for a family of four, by the way, is $22,050.)
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
"I, on the other hand, have been striving for twenty years with a minimum of intervention and without destroying our production, to arrive at a new Socialist order in Germany which not only eliminates unemployment but also permits the worker to receive an ever greater share of the fruits of his labor.
The success of this policy of economic and social reconstruction of our people, which by systematically eliminating differences of rank and class, has a true peoples' community as the final aim of the world."
-- Adolf Hitler
You do realise that if it were not for the whole world war 2 and attempted genocide of the jews, gypsies, disabled, blacks, etc, Hitler could have ended up being one of the better leaders of the 20th century? The economy and production of Germany under his control was through the roof but unfortunately, most of that was aimed at producing machines of war. If Hitler had of aimed his obsessions at peaceful endeavours (like the advancement of science, space exploration, etc), who knows what the world would have been like today...
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The amazing fact about sparta is they were outnumbered 1 vs 10 by their slaves.
Slaves that oppositely to Athena they would overwork, underprotect and overtrain to be their cannon folder. Basically overpowering and overnumbering the citizens.
And only twice over centuries did they have revolts. Once from the Thebans that valued critical thinking.
Else, every culture seems to be more likely to more easy to exploit the more they were exploited.
The "ilotes" paradox. Exploitation of slaves seems to make them more obedient to their exploitation.
To make others rich.
Have gnu, will travel.
Or else we'll hire Vladimir to do you job for $5.00. That's how America works, right? Work hard for pennies and compete with Russians who charge $5/hour.
As monopolies and collective oligarchies continue to form and gain power most of the worlds population is no longer necessary for production so the illusion (just as in the matrix) of struggle has to be there to keep the masses believing their efforts and lives matter. War or the brink of war is usually the most effective way to keep the masses engaged in productivity tasks.
The problem was how to keep the wheels of industry turning without increasing the real wealth of the world.
Goods must be produced, but they need not be distributed. And in practice the only way of achieving this was by continuous warfare.
War, it will be seen, accomplishes the necessary destruction, but accomplishes it in a psychologically acceptable way. In principle it would be quite simple to waste the surplus labour of the world by building temples and pyramids, by digging holes and filling them up again, or even by producing vast quantities of goods and then setting fire to them. But this would provide only the economic and not the emotional basis for a hierarchical society. What is concerned here is not the morale of masses, whose attitude is unimportant so long as they are kept steadily at work, but the morale of the Party itself. Even the humblest Party member is expected to be competent, industrious, and even intelligent within narrow limits, but it is also necessary that he should be a credulous and ignorant fanatic whose prevailing moods are fear, hatred, adulation, and orgiastic triumph. In other words it is necessary that he should have the mentality appropriate to a state of war. It does not matter whether the war is actually happening, and, since no decisive victory is possible, it does not matter whether the war is going well or badly. All that is needed is that a state of war should exist. The splitting of the intelligence which the Party requires of its members, and which is more easily achieved in an atmosphere of war, is now almost universal, but the higher up the ranks one goes, the more marked it becomes. It is precisely in the Inner Party that war hysteria and hatred of the enemy are strongest. In his capacity as an administrator, it is often necessary for a member of the Inner Party to know that this or that item of war news is untruthful, and he may often be aware that the entire war is spurious and is either not happening or is being waged for purposes quite other than the declared ones: but such knowledge is easily neutralized by the technique of doublethink. Meanwhile no Inner Party member wavers for an instant in his mystical belief that the war is real, and that it is bound to end victoriously, with Oceania the undisputed master of the entire world. All members of the Inner Party believe in this coming conquest as an article of faith. It is to be achieved either by gradually acquiring more and more territory and so building up an overwhelming preponderance of power, or by the discovery of some new and unanswerable weapon. The search for new weapons continues unceasingly, and is one of the very few remaining activities in which the inventive or speculative type of mind can find any outlet. In Oceania at the present day, Science, in the old sense, has almost ceased to exist. In Newspeak there is no word for " Science ". The empirical method of thought, on which all the scientific achievements of the past were founded, is opposed to the most fundamental principles of Ingsoc. And even technological progress only happens when its products can in some way be used for the diminution of human liberty. In all the useful arts the world is either standing still or going backwards. The fields are cultivated with horse-ploughs while books are written by machinery. But in matters of vital importance - meaning, in effect, war and police espionage - the empirical approach is still encouraged, or at least tolerated. - George Orwell, 1984
The new aristocracy was made up for the most part of bureaucrats, scientists, technicians, trade-union organizers, publicity experts, sociologists, teachers, jou
Legalize the constitution. Think for yourself question authority.
What is this work you are complaining about?
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
Decades earlier than my peers. It's a low cost, frugal lifestyle, but I am not missing any material comforts and eat well. Not only that, but 'stuff' has been becoming less expensive.
A friend bought a giant flat screen tv and paid over 15k$ for it new a decade ago. I saw a better unit in costco last week for a thousand. Other than a new car, there is little I'm not 'keeping up with the Jones's' with plus I have all the time in the world and travel extensively now.
A couple of weeks ago, I saw a guy on the news who'd done the exact same thing.
Article wrongly worded IMO. It should have been why do we work so much overtime.. I worked hard at work because that's what you soposa do, give your best and if its not enough they will find someone else. People work so much because they are forced too wither its extra money to catch up on some bills or to fill the Xmas fund but more often then not its required/mandatory by the company your working for. Who Fired people to save money and forced the rest to work overtime. And yes their are people who love their jobs who don't bat an eye at 20 plus extra hours a week we all know someone like that im betting.
Jack of all trades,master of none
If Hitler had of aimed his obsessions at peaceful endeavours (like the advancement of science, space exploration, etc), who knows what the world would have been like today...
That's because he tapped into the resentment of post World War One, as well as opening up and encouraging latent racism.
Hatred can get a lot of stuff done in a short time, but is always self destructive in the end. When your main tool is eliminating enemies of the state, eventually everyone looks alike an enemy. His thousand year Reich only lasted a few years for a good reason.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Retirement
All I ever wanted to do was work enough so that I can enrich and enjoy life with my family. It's that simple, yet hitting that target seems to be more and more difficult as time goes on.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
The medial-basal brain functions to respond rapidly. The Striatum connects reward and emotion centers to immediate action centers and as such produces 'salience'. Activation of this area has emotional content. Duh. Drugs of abuse activate it. Duh. You know what else activates it? Responding to stress activates it. So, procrastination and then working really hard at the last possible time frame. Having lots of drama in a disrupted life. These all activate the same centers of the brain as drugs of abuse. but if you get work done, it is doubly reinforced.
How many people can buy a house at any price and afford to stop working for a full calendar year? This is as obnoxious as the twits who dismiss 5-6 figures in student loan debt because he put himself through college in the 80's, working summers at a hardware store. You know, when the cost of your entire degree is equal to one semester's worth of today's tuition dollars.
when you're not smart enough to work smarter, the only choice left is to work harder?
Make some appropriate cultural and social changes and I am sure you would not find much difference between this and the stressedout about healthcare and unemployment,soon-to-be-outsourced, techie life in the US.
Every day the factory whistle bellowed forth its shrill, roaring, trembling noises into the smoke-begrimed and greasy atmosphere of the workingmen's suburb; and obedient to the summons of the power of steam, people poured out of little gray houses into the street. With somber faces they hastened forward like frightened roaches, their muscles stiff from insufficient sleep. In the chill morning twilight they walked through the narrow, unpaved street to the tall stone cage that waited for them with cold assurance, illumining their muddy road with scores of greasy, yellow, square eyes. The mud plashed under their feet as if in mocking commiseration. Hoarse exclamations of sleepy voices were heard; irritated, peevish, abusive language rent the air with malice; and, to welcome the people, deafening sounds floated about—the heavy whir of machinery, the dissatisfied snort of steam. Stern and somber, the black chimneys stretched their huge, thick sticks high above the village.
In the evening, when the sun was setting, and red rays languidly glimmered upon the windows of the houses, the factory ejected its people like burned-out ashes, and again they walked through the streets, with black, smoke-covered faces, radiating the sticky odor of machine oil, and showing the gleam of hungry teeth. But now there was animation in their voices, and even gladness. [Pg 4]The servitude of hard toil was over for the day. Supper awaited them at home, and respite.
The day was swallowed up by the factory; the machine sucked out of men's muscles as much vigor as it needed. The day was blotted out from life, not a trace of it left. Man made another imperceptible step toward his grave; but he saw close before him the delights of rest, the joys of the odorous tavern, and he was satisfied.
On holidays the workers slept until about ten o'clock. Then the staid and married people dressed themselves in their best clothes and, after duly scolding the young folks for their indifference to church, went to hear mass. When they returned from church, they ate pirogs, the Russian national pastry, and again lay down to sleep until the evening. The accumulated exhaustion of years had robbed them of their appetites, and to be able to eat they drank, long and deep, goading on their feeble stomachs with the biting, burning lash of vodka.
In the evening they amused themselves idly on the street; and those who had overshoes put them on, even if it was dry, and those who had umbrellas carried them, even if the sun was shining. Not everybody has overshoes and an umbrella, but everybody desires in some way, however small, to appear more important than his neighbor.
Meeting one another they spoke about the factory and the machines, had their fling against their foreman, conversed and thought only of matters closely and manifestly connected with their work. Only rarely, and then but faintly, did solitary sparks of impotent thought glimmer in the wearisome monotony of their talk. Returning home they quarreled with their wives, and often beat them, unsparing of their fists. The young people sat in [Pg 5]the taverns, or enjoyed evening parties at one another's houses, played the accordion, sang vulgar songs devoid of beauty, danced, talked ribaldry, and drank.
Exhausted with toil, men drank swiftly, and in every heart there awoke and grew an incomprehensible, sickly irritation. It demanded an outlet. Clutching tenaciously at every pretext for unloading themselves of this disquieting sensation, they fell on one another for mere trifles, with the spiteful ferocity of beasts, breaking into bloody quarrels which sometimes ended in serious injury and on rare occasions even in murder.
This lurking malice steadily increased, inveterate as the incurable weariness in their muscles. They were born with this disease of the soul
You realize we don't live in 1984, right?
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
With swine culture dominating it's not like there is an alternative. Work seems far more interesting that the "diversions" US culture provides.
The economy of Germany was actually fairly shaky, and needed to get outside sources of money (like Austria, and Czechoslovakia, to start with) to keep going without a crash.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes