Are you tired? I know I am.

[Shadow Wolf]

Rapid industrial change
Bottom of a Monetary Cycle
Middle of a Pandemic

This has been an ongoing thing. People here even before the pandemic have been working longer hours for less pay.
It's been a trend since about the 70s.
Our GPD doesn't even reflect that we work more than pretty much every other Western nation, nor does our income match this fact.

 

[Sunstone]

When I lived in US, I one time figured out
how much of the US " defense" bill i was
funding.

I forget now what it was. .03 seconds maybe.
Probably less.

Imagine what the figure is today following the
booming defense budgets of recent years! Why
I did not leverage my childhood slingshot into
a Pentagon weapons contract escapes me now,
but it was the single worst mistake of my
financial life.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

My day is usually 12-13 hours long and can go up to 6 days straight although its usually 5 lately. It used to be 4.

My compensation after analysis, is lower than standard pay vs hours worked as its only a single flat rate. It calculates to just above the new standard for minimum wage for those hours. The schedule is all over the board. Needless to say I had enough. I'm tired. I'm now seeking alternatives including self employment.

What is it with this country? Compared to others, its not right nor fair from the perspective of the worker. Agree / disagree


The U.S. is the Most Overworked Nation in the World


Do you think it will ever change here? I personally don't see it happening. Our nation just gets worked to the bone ever worse and worse and it seems its not going to stop anytime soon.

Thoughts?

Well, we must toil to make our slave masters happy and make sure they get their multi-million dollar bonuses.

Ain't the Protestant work ethic fun?

 

[Sunstone]

I think a possible solution might involve a series of reforms discouraging employers from working folks more than, say, 30 hours per week. The exact hourly figure would need to be calculated, but if you did it right, you could solve some problems.

Most likely, you would need to reduce the threshold at which employees get overtime from 40 to the new figure; tighten up the laws regarding who can and cannot be classified as 'management' or 'contract labor'; jack up the minimum wage; expand and improve the enforcement of labor laws, etc. but if you did it right, you could both drive down the average per employee number of hours worked, and drive down the unemployment rate. The latter because many employers would hire additional workers to fill in the gap between a 40 hour week and, say, a 30 hour week.

Of course, for every 400,000 or so newly employed people, you would pressure inflation to increase by about a quarter of a percent -- and that would create tremendous political pressure against doing anything along the lines I've suggested. But hell, just tell everyone living on fixed or investment incomes that I thought my scheme was a good idea, and I'm sure they'll fall in line overnight.

 

[metis]

Our nation just gets worked to the bone ever worse and worse and it seems its not going to stop anytime soon.

This is one of the unfortunate byproducts of having a global economy. But there are also some benefits, such as less expensive products and also very significant decline in world poverty.

 

[Mr Spinkles]

I did an internship in Europe once.

I was the first one into the office every morning and the last one to leave every evening.

And even when they were there ... they weren’t working the whole time. Lunch was a solid hour followed by another half hour or hour of chatting and drinking espresso.

Stores in town would be closed at seemingly random times. Like every Tuesday. Or closes early on Wednesdays. Something like that.

I simultaneously felt like I had been duped, and doomed to a life of much harder work than is necessary ... but also ... I couldn’t imagine how these people got anything done. Clearly they do.

I am not sure I could work that little if I tried ... well, okay, I’m sure I could. But yes. Americans work too hard.

 

[Straw Dog]

My day is usually 12-13 hours long and can go up to 6 days straight although its usually 5 lately. It used to be 4.

My compensation after analysis, is lower than standard pay vs hours worked as its only a single flat rate. It calculates to just above the new standard for minimum wage for those hours. The schedule is all over the board. Needless to say I had enough. I'm tired. I'm now seeking alternatives including self employment.

What is it with this country? Compared to others, its not right nor fair from the perspective of the worker. Agree / disagree


The U.S. is the Most Overworked Nation in the World


Do you think it will ever change here? I personally don't see it happening. Our nation just gets worked to the bone ever worse and worse and it seems its not going to stop anytime soon.

Thoughts?

I’ve been working 10-12 (sometimes more) hour days over 6 days a week all year. I often work over 60-70 hours a week. Admittedly, I do earn much more than minimum, but that only mitigates the fact of overwork for so long. I’m not realizing my creative potential. I’m not realizing my spiritual potential. I don’t have time to date. I don’t have time to love fully. I feel like a ****ing machine.

 

[oldbadger]

My day is usually 12-13 hours long and can go up to 6 days straight although its usually 5 lately. It used to be 4.

My compensation after analysis, is lower than standard pay vs hours worked as its only a single flat rate. It calculates to just above the new standard for minimum wage for those hours. The schedule is all over the board. Needless to say I had enough. I'm tired. I'm now seeking alternatives including self employment.

What is it with this country? Compared to others, its not right nor fair from the perspective of the worker. Agree / disagree


The U.S. is the Most Overworked Nation in the World


Do you think it will ever change here? I personally don't see it happening. Our nation just gets worked to the bone ever worse and worse and it seems its not going to stop anytime soon.

Thoughts?

Questions:-
Do you really love your work. Do you love what you do?
Are you financially secure? Do you, or when will you... own your home?
Can you and yours live less expensively than you do now?
Are you particularly worried about image or status?

Your answers to these kinds of questions can either lock you down or free you up.....

 

[oldbadger]

Yes, it does not need to be a matter of point-scoring, I agree. But the only way to improve things is by lawmakers making new laws to redress the imbalance of power. And that is politics. Inescapably.

By all means vote for improvements but the way to free oneself from endless slog is to think of ways to need less, to care less about status, to live less expensively and to choose work which is more satisfying.

Too many people are locked in to jobs which pay them so well, but which they see as endless boredom. My Father was in a good job and spent the last 20 years of his life at a huge office building by the Thames. It took 1.25 hours to reach Liverpool St Station, then the Drain (Waterloo line) to the South Bank, and of course the return journey, when in fact his dream was to be a gamekeeper or groundsman at about 20 minutes travel from home. But he couldn't let go of the money. Slave to an income. He admitted it all years later.

I say this as a predominantly Conservative UK voter (until Brexit came along). Things are just too far out of balance, especially in the USA.

Your vote didn't lose Europe to you. Any PM could have made that mistake, I think.

 

[MonkeyFire]

Some are tired, some one are asleep, some are awake.

 

[jhwatts]

The problem is labor has no value. A lot of hours are neccessary to be able to buy a handful of things.This is because this economy is so distorted from our central bank and leaders. See the 5 plank of the Communist manifesto. Yes the a central bank(the fed) is a Communist organization. We have more than one Communist federal organization. They kinda just slipped during the time Communism was makeing its way throughout the globe. Go figure. See the 2nd plank. The 16th Amendment of the constitution was ratified at that time too. Yes an income tax is a very un-american thing believe or not. How do you like that class warfare?

If we was in a free market your labor value would adjust and your efforts and energy would be much more valuable. We have not been in a free market since the Federal Reserve bank was established in the USA in 1913. Dont let nobody kid you when they talk about free markets when we have no free markets. Look at the stock market and the mainstream economy right now. The stockmarket is clearly controlled. There are no free markets. The rise of debt in Amerca is no accident, its there ro ensure people are tied to job.

Thank about the number of people working and supply and demand. The more workers the less value the work has and so why would we want to even consider being part of a gigantic global workforce.