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I heard that Trump works up to 19 hours a day. I'm not arguing about this. It's just what I read.
Why would a person work so many hours when they could just relax on the beach for the rest of their lives? It's an interesting philosophical question.
Oh my gosh - LOTS of people prefer to work rather than kick off their shoes. I sure don't want to relax on the beach after I retire from my job...I want to be productive. I'd love working with Habitat for example.
Oh my gosh - LOTS of people prefer to work rather than kick off their shoes. I sure don't want to relax on the beach after I retire from my job...I want to be productive. I'd love working with Habitat for example.
But being a politician, let alone a President, is intense and grueling work. There is very little fun about that line of work. It is merciless.
And yet, we have senior citizens who continue to do that until very late in life. I find that fascinating.
And yet, we have senior citizens who continue to do that until very late in life. I find that fascinating.
Not to derail the main point, but this "unfathomable" drive to work and contribute and create is completely ignored when talking about any economic option that might let people survive without a supporting job. But of course everyone who gets a free ride will just slack off and sit on a couch or beach or barstool.
Often repeated by people who have parents and grandparents who dropped dead "doing something" with no real financial return. Funny, that is.
But being a politician, let alone a President, is intense and grueling work. There is very little fun about that line of work. It is merciless.
And yet, we have senior citizens who continue to do that until very late in life. I find that fascinating.
You really think politicians are not there because they love the job?? Really?? It is not fun to you...and "fun" is probably not the right word...but I assure you they are there because they get the utmost satisfaction from it. Call it a power trip, ego trip...whatever.
I disagree. They are being paid for their own labor. I have a good friend that is an ER doctor...she certainly does not set her own prices, LOL. And she needs every cent - 3 kids in boarding school and one in college. Doctors are absolutely working class.
A doctor may choose to work in those circumstances, but that is not the common "lot" of someone in the professional class. Someone in the "working class" cannot go into a private practice and set his own hours and prices.
The key distinction about most doctors, lawyers, engineers, scientists, writers and so forth, is that their labor is both intellectual and creative. That is, they solve problems in a meaningful and insightful way. They make diagnoses, offer legal arguments, derive and solve equations, write new literature. To be sure, some doctors effective do nursing, and some lawyers effectively just perform administrative services. Setting broken bones or filing delaying-motions are probably not higher-end intellectual functions. But many doctors do research in cancer-treatment, and many lawyers write groundbreaking opinions on constitutional law. Many engineers conduct research on new measurement-techniques, new chemical reactions or materials-processing or machine-learning.
The sort of work that advances the human species as a whole, that ennobles us as a pertly inquisitive and contemplative lot - that, while still being "work", is hardly indicative of being working-class. Phrased alternatively, to be a professional, in the truest sense, means a systematic and forceful way to taking one's mind where other minds haven't yet been... which is the very antithesis of "working class".
I heard that Trump works up to 19 hours a day. I'm not arguing about this. It's just what I read.
Why would a person work so many hours day at 70+ years of age when they could just relax on the beach for the rest of their lives without a care in the world? It's an interesting philosophical question.
Because there is a specific ethic called in the West the "Protestant work ethic" (which does appear in other regions of the world as well--strongly in Confucianism) in which usefulness is a good thing per se, and that indolence is a bad thing. This isn't natural, but it's commonly taught.
Because there is a specific ethic called in the West the "Protestant work ethic" (which does appear in other regions of the world as well--strongly in Confucianism) in which usefulness is a good thing per se, and that indolence is a bad thing. This isn't natural, but it's commonly taught.
Who says it's not natural? Are you saying that with an infinite supply of nuts and berries, early man would have invented the couch and stopped?
With a limitless supply of nuts and berries, early man would never have descended from the trees.
I disagree entirely about human nature. But then, I don't attend the 1st Church of Econ Calvinism.
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