So I’ve been getting a lot of videos in my Youtube feed of people complaining about working. I never searched for it, it just started appearing and I made the mistake of watching one and now they get regularly recommended to me. Anyway, the recurring theme in this is that a lot of people feel like they are a slave to their job and that they have no free time. I agree with that. It’s very hard to get into anything before or after a normal 8 hour workday, and the weekends fly by so fast they aren’t even worth mentioning as free time. You spend most of your weekend shopping for groceries for the coming week, doing laundry, and trying to straighten up your home a bit.
I am a firm believer in the well known phrase that, “GOD loves a working man”. If GOD didn’t want us to work, I don’t think we would be doing it. Working is very good for human beings. It helps us to feel productive and it keeps our minds from being idle. A lot of the crimes that occur happen from someone having a wicked idea pop into their head when they are idle, just sitting at home doing a whole lot of nothing and they get this bright idea to go rob someone or some place. “The idle mind is the devils workshop” is the common saying and I believe that to be very true. That’s why I’m a huge proponent of having hobbies and things you do that fil your time besides the things you MUST do to keep going forward every day.
The problem in my opinion comes in the way that you can have a person that is not lazy, that is willing to work 40 hours per week, but they can’t afford their own place or have any disposable income to get any enjoyment out of life. An Amazon warehouse worker shouldn’t have to eat beans and cornbread every day when Jeff Bezos is eating steak every day. Sure, maybe that warehouse worker can’t eat good every day like Jeff, but they should be able to enjoy the occasional steak or a trip some place nice with their family from time to time.
The fact that people can’t even afford a decent apartment rental or don’t have enough money to buy “some” nice things is not fair. I would consider myself middle class and it’s a struggle to do things and get things. I buy a lot of DJ and music equipment, and thus I can’t afford to travel nor do I own a lot of nice clothes. There has to be a trade-off somewhere. I work in Information Technology and have been providing computer and tech support for different companies for a few years. There’s no reason with what I do for a living that I shouldn’t earn enough money to do all that and then some. The fact is though, in IT, companies tend to force you to join their team as a temporary employee, with low wages and bad benefits from the recruiter, like expensive health insurance and very little time off compared to what a full time employee would get. Add onto that that I live on the West Coast where the cost of living is high and you start to see the picture.
For myself and even someone working in a job that doesn’t require a particular skillset, if you are willing to get up off your butt and work every day, you should have enough money to enjoy your life to a reasonable extent. I’m not asking to own a yacht or a mansion, but can I be able to travel, buy cool stuff for my hobby, buy decent quality clothes, and eat decent food with my willingness to get up and work every day? It’s not like it’s un-doable either. American Corporations are greedy and all they care about is their profit margin for the most part. They cut costs, overwork people, among other things all in an effort to achieve the best bottom line. There used to be a time in this country where no matter where you worked, you could count on getting a bonus around Christmas time so you could buy your family nice gifts and dinner which lead to an enjoyable holiday. Those days are gone, and most companies don’t even give bonuses anymore.
It’s a sad situation, and until the people revolt against Corporate America, its only going to get worse and worse. Greed is the word of the day and you see it in all avenues of your life. Everyone wants your money and doesn’t want to give you enough to do what you want to do. It sucks and it has to change. The videos I mentioned at the start of this post are evidence that people are getting fed up and are tired of this monotonous struggle they keep enduring. It’s going to hit the fan soon and I will be alive to see it….