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This shouldn't be a surprise. Ownership comes with maintenance costs, and maintenance requires time. Americans work more than most developed nations [1] and wor

This shouldn't be a surprise. Ownership comes with maintenance costs, and maintenance requires time. Americans work more than most developed nations [1] and work more than they used to. American commutes have also increased [2] steadily over the last 30 years. Given that, is there any surprise that Americans are less willing to own, and maintain, their things than they used to be? [1] https://nypost.com/2017/09/03/americans-work-harder-than-any-other-countrys-citizens-study/ https://nypost.com/2017/09/03/americans-work-harder-than-any... [2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/02/22/the-american-commute-is-worse-today-than-its-ever-been/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/02/22/the-a...

TangoTrotFox 8y ago
The first point is untrue. The OECD measures hours worked per member nation. You can see the results here [1]. The United States is just about square in the middle. We work 1,789 hours per year. The OECD average is 1,763. That's 26 hours less per year, or 30 minutes a week, or less than 5 minutes a day. These hours are also way down from the past and contributing to income inequality. In the 60s most men, regardless of education, worked about 50 hours a week [2]. The article shows an informative graph on hours worked by income quintile. The bottom 20% of society works, by far, the fewest hours in all of society. The 20-40% quintile works substantially more than the bottom, but less still than the rest of society. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_time#Average_annual_hours_actually_worked_per_worker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_time#Average_annual_ho... [2] - https://qz.com/574693/americans-working-less-than-ever-before/ https://qz.com/574693/americans-working-less-than-ever-befor... (media article, but based on study which is cited with relevant numbers and figures shown)
- Karrot_Kream 8y ago
  The US is one of the hardest working highly-developed countries. According to [1] for 2015, the US #13/35 (in the top 37%, so not the middle) on the list on the OECD ranking of average hours worked per worker. In 2015, the US had a Human Development Index (HDI) of 0.920 tied for #10/188 in the ranking of HDI [2]. The only 2 countries with a higher HDI than the US that works more hours in 2015 than the US is Ireland and Iceland. Iceland in 2015 had a population of 329,425 [3] and Ireland in 2015 had a population of 4,688,464 [4], while the US had a population of 321,773,631 [5]. Given that Iceland has an extremely low population compared to the US, Ireland is the only country of comparable population and HDI where the workers work _more_ than US workers. In contrast, Mexico works the longest hours according to the OECD ranking, but is #77/188 on the HDI ranking list [2]. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_time#Average_annual_hours_actually_worked_per_worker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_time#Average_annual_ho... [2] - http://hdr.undp.org/en/composite/HDI http://hdr.undp.org/en/composite/HDI [3] - https://www.populationpyramid.net/iceland/2015/ https://www.populationpyramid.net/iceland/2015/ [4] - https://www.populationpyramid.net/ireland/2015/ https://www.populationpyramid.net/ireland/2015/ [5] - https://www.populationpyramid.net/united-states-of-america/2015/ https://www.populationpyramid.net/united-states-of-america/2...
  - wilsonnb3 8y ago
    > the US #13/35 (in the top 37%, so not the middle) At the very tail end of the top 37%, which makes it part of the middle third and part of the middle two quarters.

TangoTrotFox 8y ago

The first point is untrue. The OECD measures hours worked per member nation. You can see the results here [1]. The United States is just about square in the middle. We work 1,789 hours per year. The OECD average is 1,763. That's 26 hours less per year, or 30 minutes a week, or less than 5 minutes a day. These hours are also way down from the past and contributing to income inequality. In the 60s most men, regardless of education, worked about 50 hours a week [2]. The article shows an informative graph on hours worked by income quintile. The bottom 20% of society works, by far, the fewest hours in all of society. The 20-40% quintile works substantially more than the bottom, but less still than the rest of society. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_time#Average_annual_hours_actually_worked_per_worker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_time#Average_annual_ho... [2] - https://qz.com/574693/americans-working-less-than-ever-before/ https://qz.com/574693/americans-working-less-than-ever-befor... (media article, but based on study which is cited with relevant numbers and figures shown)

Karrot_Kream 8y ago
The US is one of the hardest working highly-developed countries. According to [1] for 2015, the US #13/35 (in the top 37%, so not the middle) on the list on the OECD ranking of average hours worked per worker. In 2015, the US had a Human Development Index (HDI) of 0.920 tied for #10/188 in the ranking of HDI [2]. The only 2 countries with a higher HDI than the US that works more hours in 2015 than the US is Ireland and Iceland. Iceland in 2015 had a population of 329,425 [3] and Ireland in 2015 had a population of 4,688,464 [4], while the US had a population of 321,773,631 [5]. Given that Iceland has an extremely low population compared to the US, Ireland is the only country of comparable population and HDI where the workers work _more_ than US workers. In contrast, Mexico works the longest hours according to the OECD ranking, but is #77/188 on the HDI ranking list [2]. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_time#Average_annual_hours_actually_worked_per_worker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_time#Average_annual_ho... [2] - http://hdr.undp.org/en/composite/HDI http://hdr.undp.org/en/composite/HDI [3] - https://www.populationpyramid.net/iceland/2015/ https://www.populationpyramid.net/iceland/2015/ [4] - https://www.populationpyramid.net/ireland/2015/ https://www.populationpyramid.net/ireland/2015/ [5] - https://www.populationpyramid.net/united-states-of-america/2015/ https://www.populationpyramid.net/united-states-of-america/2...
- wilsonnb3 8y ago
  > the US #13/35 (in the top 37%, so not the middle) At the very tail end of the top 37%, which makes it part of the middle third and part of the middle two quarters.