Today was a pretty interesting day, or at least as far as the morning goes.
Had a lunch at Bible College to go to (loads of food for a measly $2), and after passing the Bus Exchange a young fella in a suit boarded the bus, and what was striking was that he was carrying a bright pink bag. He introduced himself (talking to me as if he knew who I was...), and opened his bag to show me his "finest wares". You got it - he was a salesman! Anyway, I told him that I was a student and had no money, but still wanted to see what he had. After all that was said and done, he told me that he'd started his new sales pitch a week ago, which is where the 'meat' of this Blog is focused...
He said that prior to his current sales job, he'd worked as a Landscape Hand, shovelling dirt, digging, and well...doing a lot of physical outdoors stuff (I myself have worked as an engineering labourer so I could sympathise). He said that he didn't like all the physicals, and instead got into this sales job. As he put it: "I'm earning more and working less". Now that I found staggering, and here's why...
A few decades ago, some learned fellow predicted that by our time we'd be living in what would be known as the "Age of Leisure". Our technological prowess would allow humans to work less, earn more, and thus have more time to do whatever we wanted. Instead, technology has gone the opposite; we are working more hours for roughly the same pay packet each week. Because of the increase in physical labour, people - particularly the up-and-coming high school leavers - would indeed rather work scant hours and expect the same amount of wage that a blue-collar worker would get.
Are people out there uncontent with their pay? Or would we rather sit on our laurels and wait for large sums of cash to come to us?
And of course, what are our reasons for working? Are we merely interested in the weekly wage? Or are we there to redeem our workplaces? Worth thinking about...
Oh, and a quick word to those seeking more cash for less time: You can have your money, but you can't take it with you.
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1 comment:
was reading your post and something struck me, Having worked for 12 years i've seen this work less get more idea evolve. I used to know a guy who was at uni and the only reason he was there was he couldn't figure out what he wanted to do. In fact he was too lazy to get off his arse and find a job.You are of course right there is an idea that because of technology we can all sit back and watch the cash roll in i.e dot com businesses. the idea we should be preaching to the next generation is what was taught to us by our elders. "some people have to get up and go to work in the morning." however long that person works and what they do for thier money is ultimately up to them but like i said maybe we as a nation need to look at something like compulsory military service as a means to get this generation off their collective asses and earn the money they get.
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