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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."
When you have very little money and lots of free time, yes. As your income increases and free time decreases, time becomes more valuable at some point. One of the goals of our economic system is removing the choice of working only to the tipping point, and only leaving the options of not working at all (and being destitute) or working nearly all of your waking hours.
We work so hard because it's in the best interests of our rulers that we do, because they get to gather the fruits of our labour. That's all there is to it.
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
Because those older than us and those with better access to credit, have driven asset prices to the highs of human history. No longer are housing prices a normal 2.5x annual salary -- they are 5-7x and in some areas even higher. Access to government credit for educational costs has led to the highest education prices in world history. And a wholly sinister cartel of pharmaceutical manufacturers, medical equipment manufacturers, insurance companies and their Washington DC puppets, has led America to the highest healthcare costs in the history of mankind.
Prior generations would have called the current state of economic serfdom which Americans find themselves living under, "Tyranny". We just call it "things are getting really expensive".
In other countries, when the native inhabitants of a city could no longer afford to live in their home towns, they burned the houses of the rich to the ground and sent them packing.
Today, it is the ousted natives that go packing. But everywhere the same game is being played: Those with access to credit are quickly driving up asset values and creating a two tiered society. The "landed aristocracy" and the "you dummies should have bought real estate" camps. For millennials that distinction is compounded by whether or not mommy and daddy paid for education, or if the shackles of student debt are binding you to your workstation.
Why do we work so hard?
What kind of a privileged, ivory tower question is that anyway?
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