Why do we do the work?

Almost one-third of your entire life will be spent at work. That’s almost 90,000 hours of work for a person with an average life span and career.

But why do we spend so much time at work? What are the origins of modern-day society that created the system for us to trade our time for money.

It wasn’t that long ago that most people worked on their homestead or simply providing the necessities of every day life, working in the field, around the home and caring for loved ones young and old.

The industrial revolution 150 years ago brought about massive change to nearly every aspect of life, including the way we measure time, our daily habit and patterns, the commercialization and commoditization of non-necessities that often require a person to have to work to afford. The emphasis and expense of convenience is currently the reason we work.

Think about it – in order to buy a washing machine that saves us the time of not having to hand wash clothes, you have to get a job. In order to afford that car, you have to have a job and work for a paycheck to pay the monthly payments. And your heat bill won’t be paid unless you put in work, unless of course you’re outside chopping word for your fireplace.

Are the modern-day conveniences really “improvements” if they merely commoditized what was already free or relatively inexpensive in society? If paying for these things that pollute the earth, take up space in the landfill and otherwise force a person to work just to afford them, are they an “improvement?”

Sixty percent of people are unhappy in their jobs. Staring down the barrel of working 90,000 hours just to afford the things and conveniences society sells, is work really working for you? Or are you just working to pad someone else’s pocket when you use your hard earned funds to buy the things that used to be free.