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[ WORKING SUCKS ] Tim Righteous "No
matter how much I hated it, I had to face up to the fact that I would have to
earn some money. I was like many fullbloods. I didn’t want to work in an
office or a factory. I thought myself too good for that, not because I was
stuck up, but because any human being is too good for that kind of no-life,
even white people. I trained myself to need and want as little as could be so
that I wouldn’t have to work except when I felt like it. That way, I got
along with plenty of time to think, to ask, to learn, to listen, to count
coup with the girls." -John Lame Deer Day after day we get up early
and trudge to work. We swallow our pride and put up with being ordered around
by the boss. We sweat and toil at jobs we hate, wasting away our lives. Why do
we do it? Because we have to? Because we need the money? Or because we don't
know how to live any other way? As Americans, we work way too hard. Most of
us work 40 or more hours a week from when we are 18 years old until after we
turn 60. One in four American workers works more than 49 hours a week. One in
eight works more than 60 hours a week and one in ten holds down more than one
job. And we keep working more and
more. Americans have added 20 extra work days to our work year since 1970.
American factory workers work an average of five weeks a year in overtime
alone. Americans work two months more per year than the French and Germans.
We must be crazy. Working this hard is weird and unnatural. For hundreds and
thousands of years before the dawn of history, people lived as
hunter-gatherers and simple farmers. Hunting and gathering is a pretty
relaxed way to make a living. Modern hunter-gatherers like
Native Australians "work" less than four hours a day. Even after we
gave up the forests and built cities, we still didn't work very hard. During
medieval times in Europe, people worked as few as 120 days a year. There is no reason for us to be
working so hard. As advances in technology help us work more productively, we
should be able to work less. Today, American workers are ten times more
productive than we were 100 years ago. That means, for every hour we work
today, we produce as many goods and services as workers produced in ten hours
in 1890. That also means we should be able to work one tenth as much, and
live just as well, as people did back then. That would be less than eight
hours of work a week. Since we don't work eight hours
a week, where did all that extra productivity go? A lot of it went as profits
into the pockets of the rich. The rich in America are richer than any other
group of people EVER in the history of the world. If we work harder or
better, our bosses aren't under any obligation to pay us more or let us work
less. Sadly, that's how capitalism works. (Capitalism REALLY sucks, but
that's beyond the scope of this article. There are books listed at the end
that go into some depth about how capitalism sucks and what we can do
about it.)The rest of that productivity went into "improving" our
standard of living. We made a decision to buy more rather than work less.
Some of the things we bought really did improve the way we live. Very few
homes in 1890 had running water, electricity or flush toilets. But most of
what we bought were fluff consumer products like big cars and colour TVs that
are fun to own, but that we don't really need. The question is: why did we
make this choice? Why did we choose to buy more crap instead of working less? We didn't. American corporations
made the choice for us by brain- washing us with advertising.
Advertisements are everywhere, telling us we will be happier, better looking,
admired, respected and even loved, if we just buy this or that product. Of
course, we all know that we can't buy happiness or love, but
with advertising poking into every part of our lives, it's hard not to give
in to the idea that we can buy a better life. Eventually almost everyone does
give in to the dull, exhausting trap of work and spend, work and spend,
produce and consume. The price for this choice is
high. Work saps our spirit and crushes our sense of freedom. Kissing our
boss's ass all day is humiliating. The worst is when we actually get used to
being pushed around. Human beings need to be free to develop our independent
selves. The more we work, the less we think like free people and the more we
think like dogs: dull and obedient. Work takes time from other,
better things like being with our families and friends, travelling, making
love, drinking beer, painting, writing, reading, playing music, cooking and
eating good food, etc. These are the things that make life rich and
interesting. Work makes life boring, short and grey. Work is also killing us. Twenty
five thousand American workers are killed each year on the job. Two million
more are disabled and 25 million are injured. These numbers don't include the
50 thousand Americans who are killed each year in car crashes, many of whom
are travelling to or from work. Finally, we can't afford to keep
consuming things the way we do. Americans make up only 5% of the world's
population, but we consume more than 25% of the world's resources and energy.
Soon those resources will run out. Our over-producing industries are filling
the sky and water with smoke and sludge. Most of the smog in the air comes
from people commuting to work in cars. Our consumption habit is ruining the
earth. To keep up the flow of resources
into our country, we force the rest of the world (and many poor Americans) to
do our dirty work. Poor people in places like Mexico and South Africa sweat
all day in factories and mines so that we can have cheap fabric and coal to
make our clothes and heat our homes. The median income world-wide is only
$2,000 per person a year. The average American makes 65 times the salary of
the poorest half of the world. If we could learn to work and consume less,
these poor people could spend less time working for us, and more time working
to feed and house themselves. If we want to be free, if we
want to really live our lives, if we want to live on a healthy planet, if we
want to end suffering and exploitation in the world, we will have to learn to
work less. But if I work less, won't I
starve? Most Americans have a terrible
fear that if they stop working all the time, they won't be able to afford
food and rent. The trick is learning how to work less by learning how to
spend a lot less. Living cheap doesn't mean suffering and starving. You can
live cheap and also enjoy a comfortable, plentiful life. |
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