Working Ourselves To The Grave
There’s some truth to the argument that people are working longer but are making less money. Certainly, if you query your friends, you’ll likey find that they’re all working hard, yet they can only ever find an amount of cash on hand to just get by. While we’re working harder, the costs of things we need continues to go up. Consider the cost of Lasik eye surgery for instance. While in previous times Lasik eye cost may not have been as effective, the cost of the equipment and expertise that was needed would not have been as significant, and so doctors would probably have been able to charge less. While the cost of Lasik has risen, the amount of time we’ll need to work if we want this kind of surgery to be done has also increased.
Why has this happened? One of the issues may be the ever-expanding number of us on the Earth. As more and more people have children, the number of people who are in existence demanding products will increase. The law of supply and demand says that as demand increases, so do costs. This is logical, as the number of goods that can be supplied remains the same while the number of people who need it increases, only those who are willing to spend more money will be able to take advantage of the product.
So population is one reason. Another is the way our priorities have been changed over the years. While those of just fifty years or sixty years ago, before and while World War II, would have been content to save money and purchase less, the economy of today is consumer based, and those who take part in it must purchase a lot in order to keep things moving.
Consider the amount you’ve spent on luxury items this year. Now consider if it would be likely that you’d purchase that much on such things a hundred years ago. We’re spending more money on goods now than we ever were, and the reason is that we’re more worried about keeping up with what other people are doing.
The result of this is that we’re required to work harder in order to have the things that we think we need, but the fact is that we don’t need them, we’re purchasing them for someone else’s satisfaction. So then the only reasonable conclusion is that we’re working harder, spending more money, but are ultimately less satisfied with our lives.
It’s probably worthwhile to take a step back and thinking about where we’re putting our money. Do you absolutely need another t-shirt? Should you really buy that new video game console? There are heaps of things that are cheap and enjoyable, it’s just that our culture doesn’t celebrate them. If you’re working all the time and are becoming unhappy, consider some of the ways you can enjoy life without wasting all your needed cash. You’ll feel much better about yourself if you take this step.
