4 ms·

If you value your time, then it really pays to investigate the ways in which you spend money, and the system that is in place to encourage that spending and eve

If you value your time, then it really pays to investigate the ways in which you spend money, and the system that is in place to encourage that spending and even make it seem normal. There are questions you can ask, for instance, if you are an employee of someone else: How much do I get paid per hour? How much money do I need to sustain my lifestyle? How many hours per week do I need to work to sustain my lifestyle? What if it's only 25 hours? Are there full-time professional jobs out there which only require 25 hours of work per week? Why not? Is it because we're supposed to spend the money earned in the other 15 hours on stuff we don't need? When did I make the decision to work 15 more hours to buy stuff I don't really need, and could I be enjoying my life more by having those 15 hours instead of the stuff?

yummyfajitas 16y ago
Are there full-time professional jobs out there which only require 25 hours of work per week? Why not? Because by definition, 25 hours/week is part time. Incidentally, if you wish to work little, you can do so. 80% of the poor don't work at all, and nevertheless live a lifestyle which a few decades ago would have been called "middle class". I don't see much reason you can't do the same, unless of course you actually want some of the stuff that extra 15 hours/week can buy. If you do skilled labor, you can almost certainly consult less than 40 hours/week (on average, over a year).
- dhyasama 16y ago
  Do you have data to support the statement that 80% of poor people don't work? How do you define poor? How do you define middle class? I have a hard time believing someone poor enough to receive food stamps for example is living a life anything like what my parents were living when they were my age (30 years ago).
  - yummyfajitas 16y ago
    Poor is defined by the US poverty line. The actual number of poor people who don't work (and aren't looking for work) is 78% as of 2008. http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpswp2008.pdf http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpswp2008.pdf Lifestyles of the poor, in terms of consumer goods and services. http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2004/01/Understanding-Poverty-in-America http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2004/01/Understandi...
    - dhyasama 16y ago
      Thanks for the info. The BLS paper is useful, but I have to question anything from Heritage. To grossly paraphrase Groucho Marx, "I don't want to be a member of a club that counts Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity as members."
zeynel1 16y ago
"How many hours per week do I need to work to sustain my lifestyle?" I was reading a biography of William Godwin who made this calculation in the 18th century: "In 'a state of equal property,' the amount of labor required to produce necessities, being shared among the community, would be so slight that few men would shrink from it. Godwin anticipates Kropotkin and other later political thinkers in an elaborate discussion of the quantity of labor necessary each day if the production of luxuries were suspended. He estimates it at half an hour per day." page 92. http://books.google.com/books?id=8GMqJEznW8gC&pg=PR10&dq=william+godwin+biography&lr=&cd=1#v=snippet&q=labour&f=false http://books.google.com/books?id=8GMqJEznW8gC&pg=PR10&#3...
- euroclydon 16y ago
  Thanks! I wonder how many hours the Amish put in?

yummyfajitas 16y ago

Are there full-time professional jobs out there which only require 25 hours of work per week? Why not? Because by definition, 25 hours/week is part time. Incidentally, if you wish to work little, you can do so. 80% of the poor don't work at all, and nevertheless live a lifestyle which a few decades ago would have been called "middle class". I don't see much reason you can't do the same, unless of course you actually want some of the stuff that extra 15 hours/week can buy. If you do skilled labor, you can almost certainly consult less than 40 hours/week (on average, over a year).

dhyasama 16y ago
Do you have data to support the statement that 80% of poor people don't work? How do you define poor? How do you define middle class? I have a hard time believing someone poor enough to receive food stamps for example is living a life anything like what my parents were living when they were my age (30 years ago).
- yummyfajitas 16y ago
  Poor is defined by the US poverty line. The actual number of poor people who don't work (and aren't looking for work) is 78% as of 2008. http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpswp2008.pdf http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpswp2008.pdf Lifestyles of the poor, in terms of consumer goods and services. http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2004/01/Understanding-Poverty-in-America http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2004/01/Understandi...
  - dhyasama 16y ago
    Thanks for the info. The BLS paper is useful, but I have to question anything from Heritage. To grossly paraphrase Groucho Marx, "I don't want to be a member of a club that counts Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity as members."

zeynel1 16y ago

"How many hours per week do I need to work to sustain my lifestyle?" I was reading a biography of William Godwin who made this calculation in the 18th century: "In 'a state of equal property,' the amount of labor required to produce necessities, being shared among the community, would be so slight that few men would shrink from it. Godwin anticipates Kropotkin and other later political thinkers in an elaborate discussion of the quantity of labor necessary each day if the production of luxuries were suspended. He estimates it at half an hour per day." page 92. http://books.google.com/books?id=8GMqJEznW8gC&pg=PR10&dq=william+godwin+biography&lr=&cd=1#v=snippet&q=labour&f=false http://books.google.com/books?id=8GMqJEznW8gC&pg=PR10&#3...

euroclydon 16y ago
Thanks! I wonder how many hours the Amish put in?