A depressing realization about American work culture

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I realized that American hustle + grind culture is inescapable.

American (US) work culture that requires usually way beyond the 40 hour work week, often calling for nights and weekends and limited ACTUAL vacation time - as in you don't take calls, don't bring your work computer etc - for anyone who actually wants to have the trappings of the American middle class lifestyle: A house, a couple of cars, a couple of kids etc. No longer can a conventional 9 to 5 pay for that. 9 to 5 is more 8 to 6 anyways, even for the normal office grunt jobs. Nowadays, if you stay in a normal, non-managerial position, your wages/salary will stagnate, won't keep up with inflation, and you'll struggle to even afford the tiny apartment or shared housing with roommates and budget/Walmart groceries you had in your 20s. If you want to have a single family home and afford children, you have to work longer hours and sacrifice work life balance. That's the reality.

This lack of work life balance creates a very unhealthy society, where people are incentivized to cut corners on their health - not finding time to exercise, eating processed convenience foods, being exhausted while mostly sedentary. We are a very unhappy and unhealthy society.

But if we took the work/life balance approach of the repeatedly happiest, healthiest, best work-life balanced country - Denmark, our entire economy would collapse.

Denmark has a 37 hour work week that pretty much holds true. They have a mandatory year (sometimes two years) of family (maternity and paternity) leave, and five weeks paid vacation. But if we were to be more like Denmark, it would require us to have an overall more modest and quiet life with less consumption. Smaller homes, fewer cars, fewer gadgets, less consumerism overall. People would have to (gasp) ride the train or (horror) the bus! This wouldn't look like Soviet socialism, but would be a drastically less consumptive lifestyle than most of us are used to. And could you imagine what would happen to the economy if we all collectively consumed 20-40% less? An ungodly recession. Job losses every which-way, except the same oligarchs would still secure their profits just passing all their losses onto us.

The American economy as we know it is fueled by consumer debt, hyper consumption, and overwork culture. There's nothing we can do about it.

Mmmmmk when was the last time Denmark invented something remarkable/changed life/society/the way we think about health/convenience/technology? Annnnnnnd now you know why.

They did invent insulin and the GLP-1 drugs that are considered revolutionary (or at least Novo Nordisk is the largest producer of such drugs).

One can argue Legos changed life/society as well.

[Anonymous]

All of my European uncles evrey last one of them died young. They worked less hours and days and spent that time in the Pub drinking and smoking.

My american uncles, I have one who is 92 always worked 50 hours a week and he retired at 78 lived a long time. They rarely drank or smoked and kept moving.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fun fact - in Norway the government slows down the internet on Sunday to encourage family time. Be careful what you wish for when it comes to government intervention to ensure work:life balance. Stores and shops are also closed on sunday.

I’d prefer to have the option to choose my lifestyle and if I don’t want what you describe, I don’t live that way.

Our stores and shops used to be closed on Sunday too. It was nice.

I am in a neighborhood with lots of Italians, stores are def closed on sundays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At this point only major collective action will allow Americans to have a better quality of life and work life balance. Consumerism is a cultural choice.

Why can't you just make different chouces for yourself?

There is no need for collective anything.

It is getting very hard to “opt out” of hustle culture, even if you are willing to accept living smaller. Even basic housing and healthcare are out of reach.

We have a labor supply issue. Now that we turned our friends back home to the south even less workers are building houses. Until the day both dems and magas start working in construction nothing will help this situation.

Labor costs are only a very small part of the cause of housing becoming unaffordable.

We have housing shortages that will take a good decade to catch up if we assume full labor supply.
Meanwhile I can’t even fix my own bathtub.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do any of you watch Denmark movies or TV shows? They are openly racist, consistently. They don’t think of it as a problem either.

Danish. The word is Danish. Danish movies and tv shows, dear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No, it's not all just overconsumption. I live in a very small house with one car, bike or take transit as much as I can, and buy secondhand. You still can't pay a mortgage and family health insurance on one salary in many jobs. (Mine? Sure. My spouse's? No.) It's not an individual issue. It's not that easy to opt out.

You have a house in a major metropolitan area. Most people in Europe, even very wealthy people, live in small apartments and usually rent. You are overconsuming yourself

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All of my European uncles evrey last one of them died young. They worked less hours and days and spent that time in the Pub drinking and smoking.

My american uncles, I have one who is 92 always worked 50 hours a week and he retired at 78 lived a long time. They rarely drank or smoked and kept moving.

You’re right, freedom is so overrated. Maybe we should let employers make even more decisions about our lives, like what to eat and who to marry. I bet they will make better choices than Europeans!

[Anonymous]

Whats the deal w/ all this family time stuff proposed by europe, here is an example of the product of that in europe from a left wing politiican
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ski_Aggu
August Jean Diederich grew up in Berlin-Wilmersdorf.[8] His grandfather is the SPD politician and political scientist Nils Diederich.[9]

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whats the deal w/ all this family time stuff proposed by europe, here is an example of the product of that in europe from a left wing politiican
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ski_Aggu
August Jean Diederich grew up in Berlin-Wilmersdorf.[8] His grandfather is the SPD politician and political scientist Nils Diederich.[9]

their music does slap tho i'll give them that, but it doesn't seem like family time with kids had a lessened influence on drugs and screwing around

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, it's not all just overconsumption. I live in a very small house with one car, bike or take transit as much as I can, and buy secondhand. You still can't pay a mortgage and family health insurance on one salary in many jobs. (Mine? Sure. My spouse's? No.) It's not an individual issue. It's not that easy to opt out.

You have a house in a major metropolitan area. Most people in Europe, even very wealthy people, live in small apartments and usually rent. You are overconsuming yourself

I would trade my fancy house with an apartment in Europe any day, but they are too racist to take me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All of my European uncles evrey last one of them died young. They worked less hours and days and spent that time in the Pub drinking and smoking.

My american uncles, I have one who is 92 always worked 50 hours a week and he retired at 78 lived a long time. They rarely drank or smoked and kept moving.

The US ranks 55th in life expectancy. Every Western Europe country ranks higher (Denmark is at 33).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At this point only major collective action will allow Americans to have a better quality of life and work life balance. Consumerism is a cultural choice.

Why can't you just make different chouces for yourself?

There is no need for collective anything.

I’ve made awesome choices for myself, but it’s all a product of a lot of luck and privileges. I have an elite education that gave me my pick of jobs. My husband is also secure. The “average” person needs more options too.

+1

Also the country needs more than just lawyers and financial investors and corporate execs. So many high earners act as if everyone could do it if they wanted ignoring the fact that mathematically no that isn’t possible. Someone has to collect garbage. And build houses. And teach children, wait tables, pave roads, manage court house records, cut hair, etc. etc. It’s pretty narcissistic to ignore how important others are to your quality of life but then also deride them as unsuccessful and not deserving of owning a home, raising a family, etc.

Not to mention there is not a direct correlation between income and value to society. I’d guarantee that social workers make society better than any health insurance CEO.

We absolutely need a collective change to ensure everyone has the opportunity for a solid middle class life without ignoring their health and family.

In fact it’s crazy to me that we have one life on earth and this is how we’ve all decided to spend it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do any of you watch Denmark movies or TV shows? They are openly racist, consistently. They don’t think of it as a problem either.

Do you mean Danish movies and TV shows?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I realized that American hustle + grind culture is inescapable.

American (US) work culture that requires usually way beyond the 40 hour work week, often calling for nights and weekends and limited ACTUAL vacation time - as in you don't take calls, don't bring your work computer etc - for anyone who actually wants to have the trappings of the American middle class lifestyle: A house, a couple of cars, a couple of kids etc. No longer can a conventional 9 to 5 pay for that. 9 to 5 is more 8 to 6 anyways, even for the normal office grunt jobs. Nowadays, if you stay in a normal, non-managerial position, your wages/salary will stagnate, won't keep up with inflation, and you'll struggle to even afford the tiny apartment or shared housing with roommates and budget/Walmart groceries you had in your 20s. If you want to have a single family home and afford children, you have to work longer hours and sacrifice work life balance. That's the reality.

This lack of work life balance creates a very unhealthy society, where people are incentivized to cut corners on their health - not finding time to exercise, eating processed convenience foods, being exhausted while mostly sedentary. We are a very unhappy and unhealthy society.

But if we took the work/life balance approach of the repeatedly happiest, healthiest, best work-life balanced country - Denmark, our entire economy would collapse.

Denmark has a 37 hour work week that pretty much holds true. They have a mandatory year (sometimes two years) of family (maternity and paternity) leave, and five weeks paid vacation. But if we were to be more like Denmark, it would require us to have an overall more modest and quiet life with less consumption. Smaller homes, fewer cars, fewer gadgets, less consumerism overall. People would have to (gasp) ride the train or (horror) the bus! This wouldn't look like Soviet socialism, but would be a drastically less consumptive lifestyle than most of us are used to. And could you imagine what would happen to the economy if we all collectively consumed 20-40% less? An ungodly recession. Job losses every which-way, except the same oligarchs would still secure their profits just passing all their losses onto us.

The American economy as we know it is fueled by consumer debt, hyper consumption, and overwork culture. There's nothing we can do about it.

Mmmmmk when was the last time Denmark invented something remarkable/changed life/society/the way we think about health/convenience/technology? Annnnnnnd now you know why.

DP but all of that is hype and overrated.
How many of the last 10-20 years worth of advances really helped the common man?
A lot more have harmed than helped.

You’re kidding right? Are you yourself ‘common?’ Do you use any of these?? Microsoft, apple iPhones and iPads, uber, Netflix, Amazon, Ring camera, Waze, Google Maps — are you on any maintenance meds? They were probably R&D’ed by American Pharma. Do you get them in the mail? Rx by mail was OG’ed here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of my European uncles evrey last one of them died young. They worked less hours and days and spent that time in the Pub drinking and smoking.

My american uncles, I have one who is 92 always worked 50 hours a week and he retired at 78 lived a long time. They rarely drank or smoked and kept moving.

The US ranks 55th in life expectancy. Every Western Europe country ranks higher (Denmark is at 33).

DP doesn’t matter they aren’t replacing their population so they will die off in 50 years.