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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Working is not the issue.  Duh - of course we are all going to have to make a living and I don't think either OP or the TikTok girl are complaining about this.

But how our society prioritizes a job aka how long we work to our detriment or impact it has on doing anything else, that's a problem for a lot of people who work 9-5 white collar jobs.

If you commute, that's adding more hours on to the day and when you have other commitments that have to do with real life including raising a family - that becomes a real problem.  Even without raising a family, being gone from your house from 8a-7p only leaves you 2-3 hours of free time to have a life and it's sad.  Over years, that's not something that I'm betting is enjoyable to most people.

The question is why do we make this the reality and people like you who feel there's nothing wrong with it are weird.

[/quote]

It's the reality because it has to be the reality. That's what it takes to earn a good income and to live. People do make tradeoffs all the time, choosing a larger house further away instead of a smaller house or apartment closer in. But that's outside the work itself.

If everyone dropped suddenly to 30 hours a week it would have significant implications for the quality of life we enjoy through a sudden reduction in the supply of labor available with ramifications in just about everything. That the consensus is 40 hours for a standard work week is driven by the market and people's willingness to embrace it. And, by the standards of human history, 40 hours a week even with commuting time added to it, gives people way more leisure time than most of the post medieval era. It's worth pointing out that the areas in the world where people work less hours more typical of the pre industrial West are also typically the much poorer parts of the world. Western and developed society has clearly decided the benefits of working "long" hours is worth it due to the quality of life we get in exchange. Individuals within the Western society are perfectly free to find alternatives. It may or may not work out. [/quote]

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