greyenlightenment.com
To add, work is more than earning a living. It's about creating social boundaries and ownership/control of one's time or whom one associates with. It's also about social status and connections. This can explain why many people continue to work even when no longer financially necessary. Living in America is especially stressful for middle-aged people, also known as the sandwich demographic, so work is an escape for these people. The option always exists to work less, but then you lose those boundaries. Not working means you're suddenly available. If people only chose to work for the sake of earning a living, people would work much less than they do.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
I am not American, but the primary thing that keeps me earning more money than I need is the lack of ability to put down and pick up high paying work.
If I took a break for a couple of years, or a 3 day week or something, I would be very pessimistic about being able to come back in at the same level.
That's been my impression of most people who work full time and above.
30 hours a week is enough to get most of the benefits of having a set schedule, without the downsides of not getting to do much else. Higher than full time seems mostly employer driven, probably with some small business owners who don't want to go out of business and people getting started in competitive professions as well. I'm not sure that the medium difference between the US and Europe calls for more explanation.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link