I recently had a discussion with a conservative acquaintance of mine about the nature of public assistance programs – him arguing that they are inherently evil, while I, of course, argued that they are absolutely necessary if a nation is to consider itself civilized. And of course, the issue that came up is what is always touted as the greatest trait of the American worker: their work ethic. The conservative response to hard times and low wages is to say a worker should take a second job, or work more hours, or bust ass enough to get a pay raise.
Well, big surprise, conservatives are once again full of shit. The American work ethic is the worst thing to ever happen to the health and wellness of children in our country. This idiotic idea that employers should be able to pay their employees basically whatever they want, and it’s an employee’s responsibility to either work enough hours at that job or take on another source of income just to feed their kids has got to die for us to solve any of the real social issues we face as a nation.
Isn’t it interesting that the Republican party – the same politicians who tout family values – are the same people spouting the notion that people should work harder? And this in the country where we already work more hours a day than the rest of the world! It’s hard to raise your children when you never see them. I am often told that problems with crime, problems in education, and problems with drug abuse all start in the home; maybe parents would have an easier time dealing with these problems their children face if they actually saw them once in a while – and I mean more than the hour of homework they might do with them before the kids have to go to bed.
But equally important is the question why should we work that much? You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who enjoys their job more than I do, but even I am more than ready to go home and see my loved ones when the clock hits 6 o’clock. There is currently 7.6 percent unemployment in our country. Hey, you know how maybe we could give those people jobs so they aren’t just collecting the government checks Republicans despise so much? If the people with jobs weren’t working so goddamn much!
According to a New Yorker study:
Today, Americans work about as many hours each year as they did in 1970, and, instead of thirteen weeks of vacation, the average American now gets four (and that includes holidays). But there is a place that has got considerably closer to the leisure society of the futurists’ dreams—Western Europe. The French work twenty-eight per cent fewer hours per person than Americans, and the Germans put in twenty-five per cent fewer hours. Compared with Europeans, a higher percentage of American adults work, they work more hours per week, and they work more weeks per year.
Alright, but they aren’t as productive as we are, right?
One obvious result of this is that America is richer than Europe.
See? We make more money! But…
In effect, Americans trade their productivity for more money, while Europeans trade it for more leisure. Folk wisdom suggests that the reason for this difference is cultural, which, depending on your perspective, means either that Europeans are ambitionless café-dwellers or that Americans are Puritan grinds with no taste for the finer things in life. But, while culture undoubtedly matters, not that long ago it was the Europeans who worked harder; in 1970, for instance, the French worked ten per cent more hours than Americans.
You want to know what changed? Europeans realized that there is something more important than GDP. There is something more important than having the largest economy in the world, or the most powerful military. Your family and your life. Work should not be your life, and any society that thinks it’s all right for a person to put in 80 hours a week to feed their kids should seriously re-evaluate their priorities. I like my job, but I damn sure enjoy my weekend too. If you don’t, you’re as psychotic as Republicans.
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You make a good paint. Just one thing about work hours: Americans do not work more than everyone else. However, happiness is not linked to income, but is linked to going outside, which supports your overall point.
Good points all; however, I would like to question one claim in teh New York Times study: four weeks vacation, including holidays. Apparently the U.S. military is the country’s largest employer because they are the only people I know who routinely get four weeks (30 days) vacation. Even in 1970, I knew no one who got thirteen weeks vacation.
In Europe, on the other hand, young workers start out with 30 days vacation (these are work days, Monday through Friday, without holidays), which increases with age.
You are correct, there are a few countries that work more than we do. However, according to your link, that may not be true for long.
“Beginning in 1950, under the Truman Administration, and continuing with all administrations since, the United States became the first known industrialized nation to explicitly (albeit secretly) and permanently forswear a reduction of working time.”
Also, look at most of those countries… Mexico, Poland, the Czech Republic. These aren’t places people want to live. Even Japan and South Korea – Japan recognizes death by overwork as a legitimate phenomenon. We certainly don’t want these countries to serve as our example, but it seems that’s exactly what Americans strive for.
SFC Rath, that’s a very good point. I certainly have not had that much vacation since I was in school. Isn’t it interesting that we give our kids far too much time off – three months summer vacation??? No wonder our children are stupid! – while our adults get hardly any?
“Isn’t it interesting that we give our kids far too much time off – three months summer vacation??? No wonder our children are stupid!”
Well, to me, the less time kids spend in the indoctrination center, the better off they are. They might actually be able to let their minds explore, try things, and get some real world knowledge by living it themselves. They may even develop some critical thinking skills rather than simply remembering and regurgitating what their teachers tell them – preparing them for a life of blind obedience and conformity.
H,
That’s a great point. I just think a better solution is to change the nature of elementary and high schools so they are more than just indoctrination centers, and end the school day around noon – giving kids free time all year round instead of just the three month brainwipe vacation.
“Work should not be your life, and any society that thinks it’s all right for a person to put in 80 hours a week to feed their kids should seriously re-evaluate their priorities. I like my job, but I damn sure enjoy my weekend too. If you don’t, you’re as psychotic as Republicans.”
I agree people shouldn’t be driven by self preservation to work 80 hrs a week. The question (for me) is, how many kids are we talking about? What kind of home (if any) do you have? What should 40 hrs of honest, hard work entitle you? Nothing is really defined. Right now we have minimum wages, which vary from state to state and we have a national poverty level. In 2007 the poverty level for a single person was roughly $10,200. In Michigan we have a relatively high minimum wage $7.45, that works out to $15,496 a year (gross). Now depending on where you live in Michigan that is enough to just barely keep you feed and some kind of rough over your head (if you’re single). So, is this where the bar should be set? If you want anything more, you either develop a skill, or work more hours?
On a side note, the poverty guidelines are a joke. Take a look sometime and try to follow the math. I guess that’s why it’s called a guideline.
Of course of all of this is becoming increasing irrelevant as more and more skilled and educated people start working for minimum wage (or close).
On a lighter note, this maybe a good time for everyone to follow some of Riley’s advice and start enjoying/appreciating the smaller/simpler joys of life.
Unfortunately, as humans, when generally don’t fully appreciate things until we’ve lost them. I think people are going to change in ways they never expected. I hope anyway!
Sorry, “keep you fed” not “feed”
Sorry for all the typos!
You have to be kidding……………while there may not be many places where people work as many hours, the work force in this country DOES NOT WORK, or at least most of them don’t. They spend more time trying to shove their work off on the people around them than they would if they actually did their jobs. We have young people who couldn’t even make change if they didn’t have a cash register readout to tell them how much to give back to a customer after the cost of product has been subtracted from the amount tendered. To my total disgust I see it around me everywhere I go. It stinks and is getting worse by the day. By the way, work ethic is not the number of hours one works, it is about the willingness (and the capability) to DO the work, but from the looks of the posts on this site, you don’t get it and never will.
@ rick, I hope so too, but very powerful business interests are aligned against the common man.
@OregonStorm, You seem to be conflating incompetence with laziness, but I get your point. Regarding your last comment, “from the looks of the posts on this site, you don’t get it and never will,” may I offer you a nice warm cup of shut the fuck up? I’ve posted approximately once a week for the past two years, to the tune of hundreds of pages of material. And this is not my day job.
I appreciate all the different viewpoints submitted here. It is true that we Americans work a lot more days than our European counterparts. (As regards how well, that is a totally different question!) We get more money too, for the hours we put in. Indeed, we are a very well-paid people when our wages are compared with that of the rest of the industrialized nations in the world. But, what begs the question is, how is it that we are not able to compete in this day and age with them? Is it because of our productivity? Or the lack of it? Is it because we have fallen short in our work ethic? Or, God forbid, the quality of what we put out? Is it therefore, the fault of the working class? Or is our ruling class, the people who hire us, who should be blamed? Then, is it our leaders’ failure to see the problems that are even now doing a number in our workplaces that is killing our ability to produce? Their failure to address them must surely be a factor too. There are a host of questions that many have failed to answer fully! And I say, even here within these pages. So often, we are quick to point out what is ailing us, and not directly at ourselves!
I urge all of us to turn our eyes toward China, or Japan, and if I may, farther afield, at the rest of the working world, to see how we compare with our brethren there! Afterall, are they not the ones who are winning? You bet they are not into any gameplaying here.