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8 HOURS A DAY - A Rant on My Weakness and Failure

8 HOURS A DAY - A Rant on My Weakness and Failure
M.G. - Sat Jun 07, 2008 @ 12:00PM
Comments: 2
Last Comment: Wed Dec 03, 2008 @ 06:40AM

This is a response to an email from a friend in which he argued the virtues of the 40 hour work week. I had a hangover when I wrote this response, so go easy on me.

I have come to recognize that my 40-hour workweek is a product of my having failed to live my life the way I should have lived it. So I serve as an ant in an anthill, running around with all the other ants back and forth on the highway, to the grocery store, the gas station, to work. I feed the queen fat bugs, but I only get a taste of the carcass. Work does suck when the benefit of your labor isn't yours but ends up in someone else's belly. That's why I most envy the artist (sans compromising with an editor). Your entire work product is yours. I don't think there is anything innately good about being a drone working the 40-hour workweek, as if the gods have put the necessity of it in our sinews. The 40-hour workweek is punishment. It is something idle slaves are forced into by the whip master because if they weren't made to work, they wouldn't work. I'm saying that the only people needing a 40-hour workweek are the ones that couldn't get off their feet and live life differently (or should I rather say work toward their self-defined purpose with passion from an early age?) than all the other ants, or slaves.

If I were to do it all over again, I'd live by 4 rules, and as a result, this day I'd be unshackled of the curse the 40-hour workweek, and of women, both of which devour the benefit of a man's labor:

1. Never marry or share finances with anyone.

2. At 18, enlist in a government job that pays retirement after 20 years service, and get as many college degrees as you can during this 20-year service.

3. Never borrow money, not one penny.

4. Save 1/2 of everything you earn, and put it in dividend-paying stock portfolio, and never sell what you buy, unless the payout is insane.

If I'd done these 4 things, I'd be traveling the world on a vacation that never ended, and writing my stuff every evening at my hotel in France, or Rome, or Moscow. Yeah, there is still a period of servitude and perhaps risk of death in battle, but at least you have a time-certain payout on your investment of the very years of your life, your flesh and blood, and your soul.

If only my friend Bud had instructed me on women when I was in high school. His words won’t leave me and it is a tragedy my ears first took them in at age 38, 20 years too late:

"People are always trying to set me up with these women looking for relationships. I tell them I don't need a relationship because I feel whole as I am. I don't need another person to complete me. I'm not that insecure. Of course they respond with 'you're gay, aren't you?' because they have one-dimensional thinking. I reply by saying, 'I'm not gay. I love vaginas. I just don't want to own one.'"

Comments: 2
Last Comment: Wed Dec 03, 2008 @ 06:40AM

Comments

1. Kego   |   Mon Jun 16, 2008 @ 09:03PM

You always seem to miss a lot of points - but then again so do I - it always takes a third party to point them out.

Your friend seems to only think of relationships as sex. If that's the case, then he should never be in one - he is correct. There is so much more to relationships than YOU. YOU feeling whole. YOU being secure. YOU getting laid.

Relationships are about sharing. Friendships, children, family, community, and caring. Its about putting others before yourself. Its about being responsible. Its about being there when others need help, and its about others being there for you when you need help.

I do realize that having kids and families doesn't mean for sure these things will happen - some people should never have kids. But for the most part, it's true. Its realizing the importance of giving instead of taking.

Your friend is very selfish. Being selfish is easy... all you have to do is look out for #1.

2. Rugbymuffin   |   Wed Dec 03, 2008 @ 06:40AM

So if everything was optimal, and you could redo your life, all would be well ?

You don't need a relationship huh ? Say that when you are old, alone, and 55 years old. Bill Murray's Ground Hog Day, is a movie with a very good message. Looking out for number 1 seems like a good idea at first but eventually you burn all your bridges and end up bored, alone, and without companionship. But to each his own I guess, when it comes to this.

LOL

Welcome to the real word. Everyone can list a lot of woulda, coulda, shoulda.

First off, you would have to GET and KEEP the government job that you wish you could have had at 18 years old. Not to mention your pay would be nothing because of your education level. Second, this magic pension would be nullified by the time you were 30. Plus to expect a kid of 16 or 17 years of age to be aware of all the things a person is aware of at 38 years old is asking a lot. How do you know at age 18, that working 40 hrs is borderline "slave labor" ? At 16 or 17 you are still developing, and learning the world around you, let alone thinking about investments, jobs, pensions, etc., etc. And finally, yeah working like a dog for 40 hrs + a week sucks.....but a house with a roof, a loving companion, and to live in a land where peace reigns is nothing to turn your nose up at.

If you saved 1/2 of everything you got, and put it in stock, then right now you would be out A LOT of money. I see this is written in June, way before the crash. Your money is not guaranteed in the stock market, dividends can be slashed and taken away. You must put time and effort into your investments to make them work, and the highschool education you would have since working for a living at 18 would not give you the skills to do this.

You are kidding yourself, if you think you can live a life in the USA and not borrow money. College, marriage, cars, and houses. All debt. Not to mention when a $5,000 something breaks and you need to fix it.

Finally, IF you still defied the odds (yes, I am implying that oppourtunity and luck play HUGE roles in success) and did all four of the thing listed above......you still wouldn't have money to travel like you describe above at 38.

But darn if you are not the only one who thought all this before. But to dwell in the past, and think you made all the wrong turns is beating yourself up for no reason. Looking for purpose in life, and lamenting about quality of life is something people have done since the beginning of time. Nothing new.

Take it easy buddy. It ain't all that bad.

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