4 ms·

Working longer hours at more jobs just to make ends meet, while the people at the top add more 0’s to their bank account, health care costs rising while income

by girvo 7y ago

Working longer hours at more jobs just to make ends meet, while the people at the top add more 0’s to their bank account, health care costs rising while income is stagnant or worse. Shouldn’t be that surprising, really, though my comment is an oversimplification. The “economic impact” being the focus leaves a bad taste in my mouth; it’s the economic impact itself thats making it worse, if not outright causing it.

to11mtm 7y ago
I can give some more real world observed results. I once worked in an industry once that wound up forcing long periods of excessive overtime. Think 60+ hour weeks for months on end. And for peanuts (16 to 22 an hour.) The combined stress resulted in the following issues among the team: - Employee #1 committed suicide the weekend after valentines day, (work stress led to alcoholism relapse, then everything else fell apart) - Employee #2 wound up completely throwing out his back (i.e. could not move and had to crawl into his house) because of the bad chair ergonomics. - Employee #4 had multiple nervous breakdowns, ruining their marriage and setting back their life years. - Employee #5 relapsed on some bad habits involving opioids. Of the above 4, 2 were tobacco users and their intake increased substantially during these time periods. This was true of others on the team that didn't fall into these more extreme examples. But even in those other cases, I saw ruined marriages, slow spirals into bad habits (gambling, drinking, adult clubs, etc.) and overall years taken off peoples life from stress. So yeah, long hours are no joke. Edit: I skipped #3 on the list because the way they responded to stress wasn't easy to delineate. (They were however also a smoker and would increase intake under stress) On the other hand... it's worth noting that #3, when under high workload stress, would become very judgemental, easily offended and prone to rants that would, depending on day, either belong on breitbart or buzzfeed.
- grawprog 7y ago
  To speak to this. I've spent the last 5 years working 9-10 hour days 6 days a week. Over this time i've pretty much been chain smoking cigarettes and weed, drink every night, spent a couple years doing some...uhhhh interesting things...while still working....nearly fucked my life up toally. My health's deteriorated a fair bit. I'm congested constantly and I've had a chronic sinus infection for years, my back's fairly fucked. It's kinda caused me to break down a bit, I quit a couple weeks ago and moved. I've been working a job lately with less hours, but different demands that haven't really made things much better.
  - throwaway8879 7y ago
    Hope you're able to change those habits, friend.
georgeplusplus 7y ago
Well, it doesn’t serve the interest of those who are trying to make a living to buy the latest Jordan’s for 200$ a pair, live in the most happening part of the city where rent is a premium, and go out every week to the latest trendy restaurants. Of course my experience with my fellow 20 somethings are anecdotal, I believe We are doing this to ourselves. I can buy a house now in a very expensive part of the city and I’m 30. I saved, and most importantly invested, while others were lavish and spent. Yet they want the easy route? My generation forgot what meant to live in moderation. All the drinking, poor diet from restaurant outings several nights out of the week is not good for health or the wallet which affects the former thing.
- pdimitar 7y ago
  I have never ever, not once in my life, seen an investment advice in my country and schools, even when I tried. Everybody is just like: "save some money, don't go to restaurants". Ace advice, all financial problems solved! I'm 39 and I've almost literally broke my back working. Never had much time or motivation to look at the sides. So here's me, at 39, who still has no clue what does "invest your money" mean. Will you give me a few examples? Same for diet, by the way. A lot of genetic advice is floating around but when you try to find a concrete set of rules, they are not there. My generation was never educated on diet. As far as I can see, the next ones aren't either.
  - anotherman554 7y ago
    "If You Can" by William Bernstein is a free, meant-to-be simple primer on investing aimed at Millennials: https://www.etf.com/docs/IfYouCan.pdf https://www.etf.com/docs/IfYouCan.pdf
    - pdimitar 7y ago
      Appreciate the link but dude, this is not beginner material. I have zero idea what an "index fund" even is. I can learn it in an afternoon but then I'm not even sure my country has markets like that...
KnightOfWords 7y ago
The economic arguments underline why the US aversion to nationalised healthcare is so counter-productive.

by girvo 7y ago

to11mtm 7y ago

I can give some more real world observed results. I once worked in an industry once that wound up forcing long periods of excessive overtime. Think 60+ hour weeks for months on end. And for peanuts (16 to 22 an hour.) The combined stress resulted in the following issues among the team: - Employee #1 committed suicide the weekend after valentines day, (work stress led to alcoholism relapse, then everything else fell apart) - Employee #2 wound up completely throwing out his back (i.e. could not move and had to crawl into his house) because of the bad chair ergonomics. - Employee #4 had multiple nervous breakdowns, ruining their marriage and setting back their life years. - Employee #5 relapsed on some bad habits involving opioids. Of the above 4, 2 were tobacco users and their intake increased substantially during these time periods. This was true of others on the team that didn't fall into these more extreme examples. But even in those other cases, I saw ruined marriages, slow spirals into bad habits (gambling, drinking, adult clubs, etc.) and overall years taken off peoples life from stress. So yeah, long hours are no joke. Edit: I skipped #3 on the list because the way they responded to stress wasn't easy to delineate. (They were however also a smoker and would increase intake under stress) On the other hand... it's worth noting that #3, when under high workload stress, would become very judgemental, easily offended and prone to rants that would, depending on day, either belong on breitbart or buzzfeed.

grawprog 7y ago
To speak to this. I've spent the last 5 years working 9-10 hour days 6 days a week. Over this time i've pretty much been chain smoking cigarettes and weed, drink every night, spent a couple years doing some...uhhhh interesting things...while still working....nearly fucked my life up toally. My health's deteriorated a fair bit. I'm congested constantly and I've had a chronic sinus infection for years, my back's fairly fucked. It's kinda caused me to break down a bit, I quit a couple weeks ago and moved. I've been working a job lately with less hours, but different demands that haven't really made things much better.
- throwaway8879 7y ago
  Hope you're able to change those habits, friend.

georgeplusplus 7y ago

Well, it doesn’t serve the interest of those who are trying to make a living to buy the latest Jordan’s for 200$ a pair, live in the most happening part of the city where rent is a premium, and go out every week to the latest trendy restaurants. Of course my experience with my fellow 20 somethings are anecdotal, I believe We are doing this to ourselves. I can buy a house now in a very expensive part of the city and I’m 30. I saved, and most importantly invested, while others were lavish and spent. Yet they want the easy route? My generation forgot what meant to live in moderation. All the drinking, poor diet from restaurant outings several nights out of the week is not good for health or the wallet which affects the former thing.

pdimitar 7y ago
I have never ever, not once in my life, seen an investment advice in my country and schools, even when I tried. Everybody is just like: "save some money, don't go to restaurants". Ace advice, all financial problems solved! I'm 39 and I've almost literally broke my back working. Never had much time or motivation to look at the sides. So here's me, at 39, who still has no clue what does "invest your money" mean. Will you give me a few examples? Same for diet, by the way. A lot of genetic advice is floating around but when you try to find a concrete set of rules, they are not there. My generation was never educated on diet. As far as I can see, the next ones aren't either.
- anotherman554 7y ago
  "If You Can" by William Bernstein is a free, meant-to-be simple primer on investing aimed at Millennials: https://www.etf.com/docs/IfYouCan.pdf https://www.etf.com/docs/IfYouCan.pdf
  - pdimitar 7y ago
    Appreciate the link but dude, this is not beginner material. I have zero idea what an "index fund" even is. I can learn it in an afternoon but then I'm not even sure my country has markets like that...

KnightOfWords 7y ago

The economic arguments underline why the US aversion to nationalised healthcare is so counter-productive.