Jump to content

Are people working more these days?


Cobie

Recommended Posts

Working half as much doesn't mean being twice as poor; there is tax progression!

I know very little about development of working hours. - There are shocking horror stories about the time before and during WW1.

It makes a huge difference if you are working for your needs i.e."just slave off social security and call it a day" or if you are working for your greed.  It is surely nice to stuff a pretty decent car's worth into your camera bag and that bag into a car that guzzles fuel 2x as fast as you'd earn it. Maybe even buy all that fancy stuff on credit? - Did you already buy a yacht? - "A boat is a hole in the water into which you pour money” is a popular saying that has been printed on gift items, such as T-shirts and posters. “A yacht, they say, is a hole in the water surrounded by wood into which money is poured” has been cited in print since at least 1961 and is of unknown authorship.
Other sayings about boat ownership include “The two happiest days of a man’s life—the day he bought the boat and the day he sold the boat” and “BOAT: Break Out Another Thousand (dollars).”


 

Link to post
Share on other sites

By reading all the negative posts, I don't really think that you are thinking it right (at least to your profit). Most people are "short-sighted", they live from paycheck to paycheck and rely on instant gratification. However, if you focus on giving a real value to the outside world just from yourself, not because you want money for luxuries (yes, I said it, unless you are in debt, you are likely to make enough for simple living), then you might pull money held by billionaires back into economy. For example such Gates or Trump can't just have a big house out of thin air. If you offer them something they might like, they will be able to give money slowly (through credit, it's safer this way) back into economy, which will make more available money to entire society. There's also inflation by printing and creating virtual money, but it's a different story: it existed since long, long ago (kings who created new coins, etc). Major problem is only that the richest are holding their money and can't just suddenly put it back because all the stocks and market will go crazy. You might say they are evil, but how can you tell if you don't know them personally.

Link to post
Share on other sites
On 3-2-2017 at 9:47 AM, Busrider said:

... It makes a huge difference if you are working for your needs i.e."just slave off social security and call it a day" or if you are working for your greed. ...

I would like to work only for my needs. But once technology has invented things, the result is that I have to work longer to buy them. E.g. Last year the bank's local branch closed because it's all online now.  So I had to buy an iPad, and a mobile for the codes; had to get Wifi installed, plus from then on pay for Wifi monthly.

Link to post
Share on other sites

People are working more to keep up with cost of living and there are less people in the workforce because of the economy and all the jobs are going to those already working. So yes. 

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 11 months later...
On 2-2-2017 at 2:52 PM, emma-can said:

Well I mean

 

It is 700 years later

Exactly. So I would have expected things to be even better now, not worse.

Link to post
Share on other sites
On 02/02/2017 at 3:32 PM, Polygon said:

The so-called "entry-level" jobs these days want 1-3 years of prior experience, so in the case of engineering jobs, only the super-star that did 4 internships, 3 relevant clubs, sucked up to the professor enough to do research during undergrad, and knew a guy in management will not have a hard time getting the position they're aiming for (yes, I'm salty...or just jaded...whatever).

Fixed it for you. Forget about superstar, forget about academic achievements. It's about (practical!!!!!!!) experience and contacts.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Picking 1400 as an arbitrary reference point seems very misleading. Our hours worked have gone significantly and continuously down in the last 200 years.

https://eh.net/encyclopedia/hours-of-work-in-u-s-history/

 

But hey, if you wanna compare ourselves to the 14th century: I kinda prefer having electricity, water, not starving half the time, and having a life expectancy above 42 (and yes, that number already eliminated deaths at birth, so this was the life expectancy for an adult)

But maybe that's just me.

Link to post
Share on other sites

During the late 1800's to early 1900's, many people worked 12-15 hours per day, 6 days per week in factories and coal mines. Definitely more work than the 8 hours per day, 5 days per week I put in at my cushy office job.

Link to post
Share on other sites
2 hours ago, timewarp said:

It's about (practical!!!!!!!) experience and contacts.

But mostly contacts. :D

Link to post
Share on other sites

We definitely are working more, nowadays.

 

When you look at the cost of living, vs the minimum wage one has steadily increased over the last few generations. The latter, has remained pretty stable showing snail pace like growth. Unfortunately, the latter are the minimum wages.

 

Hours of work will differ based on the country we are talking about. However, yes-- we are working far more hours and being paid less to do so. 

 

Its even more alarming when you consider the average CEO salary, in comparison to their lowest paid employee. This is the far more telling statistic when you compare say, 1950, vs 2018. Its almost scary.

Link to post
Share on other sites
RoseGoesToYale
44 minutes ago, Perspektiv said:

Hours of work will differ based on the country we are talking about. However, yes-- we are working far more hours and being paid less to do so. 

There's a BBC article from 2016 talking about how siesta in Spain has been impacted by work schedules: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35995972. Globalization is making it increasingly difficult for some nations to balance culture-based leisure and high-powered work schedules, which makes me sad. Spain without siesta is like... I don't know, I can't imagine it.

 

Ironically, the modern technology that says it'll make our lives easier, more convenient and relaxing is the same technology making us work more. We not only have to work longer to make the money to afford it (think cellphones+plans, wifi, cars with three rear cameras and a computer screen, stuff that wasn't around 50 years ago), but the invasion of technology into the home means work increasingly follows people home. You can't sit down to read or eat anymore without hearing -bzzzt- Colleague XYZ has sent you a very important memo! You figure you'll just respond to just this one... but then you respond to the next one and the next, because they're there in your home and they won't go away til you respond. There's no longer a clear line between work time and downtime.

Link to post
Share on other sites
On 4-2-2018 at 5:31 PM, Gloomy said:

During the late 1800's to early 1900's ...

The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in the period from about 1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840. So naturally teething problems to be expected then. What I want to compare is the current developed situation with the pre-industrial system. How does you're current workload  compare with what I put in my opening post:

 

Economist Juliet Shor found that in 14th century England, a peasant might put in no more than 150 days a year. And the day often included time for an afternoon snooze. The tempo of life was slow even leisurely; the pace of work relaxed.

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 3 weeks later...
Guest Jetsun Milarepa

In the 50s and 60s, the men did the earning and the women the homemaking, on the whole, but now it takes both parties in a couple to bring in enough cash for all the bills...or is it just that we have the upkeep of more things and stuff than they did?

Link to post
Share on other sites

Wages haven't kept pace with the cost of living for at least a decade in Britain for starters, and this is probably the same in other countries 

Link to post
Share on other sites
2 hours ago, chandrakirti said:

In the 50s and 60s, the men did the earning and the women the homemaking, on the whole, but now it takes both parties in a couple to bring in enough cash for all the bills...or is it just that we have the upkeep of more things and stuff than they did?

My mother worked from when I was 6 months old - unusual at the time, I admit. 
When we moved south in 1993, there was such a difference in the cost of living from Merseyside that I had to get a second job - for 11 years I worked 7 days a week and still I struggled. No holidays since 1989, no social life so I don't think I've lived extravagantly. In the UK, 'zero hours' and 'Flexi hours' are popular with employers - basically you're committed to working for them, but there's no guarantee on the number of hours worked - could be 36 and half or a couple. How is anyone supposed to organise their lives around that?

Link to post
Share on other sites
3 hours ago, Skycaptain said:

Wages haven't kept pace with the cost of living for at least a decade in Britain for starters, and this is probably the same in other countries 

Possibly just a temporary blib due to the financial crisis of 2007–2008?

Link to post
Share on other sites
4 minutes ago, Thea2 said:

Possibly just a temporary blib due to the financial crisis of 2007–2008?

A decade isn't a blip. :(

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 8 months later...
Guest Jetsun Milarepa

All I see around me are people glued to their phones while pretending to work....phones held under the desk, typing away frantically- usually bitching about their co-workers...

Link to post
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...