Like Cattle on a feedlot. A rant against consuming and working...

Fri, 2008-02-22 22:45 — Joni

I have been doing a lot of reading and thinking lately about
people’s motivations, and although John and my sister have tried time and again
to explain them to me, I can’t seem to get a grasp on it. Although this may be a little self-righteous
and egotistical I feel like many of my beliefs about life are common sense. For instance, in my world, people in general
realize, or should realize that eating those little pies, that come prepackaged
on the shelf, which have no expiration date and will probably be what is
feeding cockroaches come the apocalypse, is a bad thing. Now, I’m
not claiming to be an expert on nutrition, but to me this is a no-brainer.
Now that is just a ridiculous example of what I’m talking about. On a grand scheme, I can’t seem to figure
people out. Why is it that so many people take the cheap, lazy and most
efficient route through life, even though it undermines their own lives, their
communities and even the planet? Why is
it that so many of the people in the country have an insatiable desire to
consume? We allow ourselves to be
sponges that soak up all of the advertising that our corrupt media has to
offer, so that we’ve become like cattle on feedlots, who just keep consuming,
not because we are hungry, but because we are told to do so. Why is it that more people aren’t asking themselves
difficult questions? How did we allow ourselves to become so stupid?

It makes me so sad to see so many people around me running on a treadmill of despair.
Now perhaps that is a little dramatic,
but it really saddens me to see so many people that I care living a cycle where
they go to a job they hate, come home and watch tv, which by making them feel
inadequate causes them to feel the need to buy something, which they have to go
to work to pay for, after which they watch tv and still feel inadequate and have
to go buy more stuff. Now I know that
many of my family and friends kind of smirk when they think of how John and I
choose to live. Many have even expressed concern about us, and wonder when we
are ever going to grow up. If growing up means joining that cycle, then never.
We lived that way for awhile, consuming heedlessly, and we were a little
miserable. Honestly, we loved playing together too much and work was seriously
cutting in on our play time. We both began to seriously ponder why it was that
we were working, and realized that a large part of the money that we were working
for was being spent on stuff- ergo the less stuff we had, the less we’d have to
work. The less work we do, the more time we have to do things that we enjoy,
like reading and thinking about rants like this one.

Now, I’m not saying that our life choices are perfect, nor are
they are for everyone. But if you take a
minute to consider your own lives, how much do you enjoy your job? What is it
that you are working to attain? Could you rely on less money if you were to
give up a few unnecessary things? Would you enjoy more free time to do the
things you love?

Okay this rant has gotten a little sidetracked. To sum up, I
really wish that people would stop and think more about why they do what they
do- and maybe if everyone did a little more of this the world would be a better
place.

Rant
Update

Comments

Tue, 2008-03-18 18:45 — Vtmtnman

Nobody likes work....

But as my old man said to me,"You can either hate your job and make enough,or love your job and make a little.

I think out of everyone here I think I know what it's like to see people slaving their lives away for nothing.My great grandparents never owned the farm they worked and lived on in Poultney.They farmed it in order to live.My grandparents rented their whole lives and saved barely enough money to move back to VT.My parents rented their whole lives until they worked enough to save and build their house.My parents slaved for the greater good of having a better life.Thankfully they didn't leach off others and knew how to save their money.I never had half the crap any of my friends had growing up,including a house.And I'll never have anything if I don't work for it.Because that's the right way to live.Earning things.

You're quite wrong if you think I like working.I'm fairly positive that I don't need to work the rest of my life in a slate quarry.I'm smater than that.I should be the one with the business.I'm mighty tired of getting told how much I should make or that I'll never get overtime pay or getting flipped out on cause I want a lousy dollar raise.But welcome to America,where you need to have money to make money.

A quote from one of my favorite documentaries,Dead River Rough Cut,"no man ever made that much money(Talking about JFK....the movie is from 1976) and got it honest.He stole that money.Or he had it left to him."How true is that....

Sometimes I wish I could just live in the woods and trap and be simple.Think of the freedom.But it's just not going to happen.

Mon, 2008-02-25 20:41 — Joni

Maybe some re-tooling of my ideas and explanation...

I don't mean to sound like I don't feel completely blessed
by my life, because I really do. I also don't want to sound like I think
that life should be about only about taking, because that's not at all what I'm
about either. I just have this idea (naive as it may be) that one should
be able to find a job that not only fulfills them, but also benefits
others. Perhaps in the heat of a rant I
got a little dramatic (I tend to do that, ask John), but it makes me sad how
many people I see, who hate their work and live for the time when the whistle
blows. As Americans, we spend almost 1/3
of the best years of our lives working, and if you are working at a job that
you can’t stand or don’t feel is worthwhile, that is really sad.

My initial theory was
that if one could deal with having less stuff, and a slightly lower standard of
life, then they would be able to pursue their dreams, and potentially be
happier and give more back to society. After
some rethinking though, I realized that for many people this isn’t an option-
many people are living as within their means as possible, and are still not
able to make it on their income- and therefore cannot afford to work less, or
even jeopardize themselves and their bank accounts further by changing jobs.

I did not mean to come off as high handed, but it seems I
did. I realize that what you do for a
living does not define who you are as a person, but since people are spending
such a vast amount of time in their work, I just wish that a majority of people
could be happier there.
I also feel that if we were able to work less, much more like the Europeans,
there would be much more time for people to give back to their communities. In Germany where the work week was only slightly
shorter, people volunteered in their
communities and had stronger bonds with their neighbors, working less seem to
make them more able to give back.

My goal for myself is to see if I could pursue a passion and
be successful at it. Find a dream and see it through. I realize that I will
still have a fabulous support system behind me whether or triumph or fall flat
and I feel very, very grateful.

In case anyone is interested, here are some articles that I’ve
read which fueled this rant. If anyone is interested I would love to have a
discussion about them.

http://www.consciouschoice.com/1995-98/cc095/dump40hourweek.html

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

http://www.timeday.org/tbyt_day.asp

I have also really enjoyed reading books by Bill McKibbon
and Juliet Schor, who touch on some
of these issues.

Mon, 2008-03-10 09:22 — sista

Why I work

On the way to work today I thought about Joni's blog, again. She asked a very hard question about what my motives were behind getting up every day and going to a job. A job that sometimes leaves me frustrated, angry, and overworked. A job that takes away from my family due to the hours.

Well here are my reasons:

1. To live in a house. I don't want to live in a bus, under a bridge, in an apartment, with friends, in a tent. I want a house. My own house.

2. To drive a realible car. I don't want to drive something that I am afraid of falling apart on the way to places.

3. To eat things that I want to eat. I don't want to live on dried beans and macroni. I want to eat fresh fruits and veggies. I'd like to replace these with organic and that takes $$$.

4. To see the world and not just Illinois. It takes money to see the pyramids in Egypt. And I want to see them and show my child.

5. To put braces on my child and other needs like a college education, soccer cleats, band instruments, trips to NYC, etc.

6. To have health care. I grew up without it. Granted we didn't need it because our family was healthy. But I don't want to take the risk with my family's health.

7. To have a dependable paycheck. I don't want to worry about whether Jim is going to pay me, or if my sales are enough to cover this month's bills. I fell asleep to the sounds of M&D argueing over money. I don't want this in my life.

8. To have a retirement account. Yes, this is one the biggest reasons why I work. I want to be able to retire some day so that I don't have to work.

9. So that my husband doesn't have to. My husband, like you is not one who can "work for the man." And because of that, he works part time at a job that doesn't pay well. But he's able to run errands, take care of baby, and he's happy. When he's happy, I'm happy.

10. And finally, to contribute. Sure I'd be able to find another job that didn't leave me so... frustrated. But would it have the same impact? I finally learned that although I work for a big chemical company, I am one of the few that are actually doing something about pollution and emissions. It may seem like I am working with industry to pollute more, but in actuallity, I've been given tool (federal regulations) to help industry comply which means a reduction in emissions and pollution. Its what I have to make a difference.

I worked as a consultant where I was less stressed. But I became very depressed because it did not challenge me. My last job in industry was one where I was able to have some impact on the environment, but I saw that that impact was coming to an end.

So here I sit. At a job where I wake up everyday, work 8 to 12 hours a day. Go home. Eat dinner. Play with baby. Go to bed. And do it all over again.

Without this dependable paycheck, I'd be forced to live in my little house and worry about how bills will get paid, in fear that the car will break down, or that we can't go to the doctor. I don't want that.

Hopefully with this high paying job I will one day build my "dream house" Not to keep up with the Jones, but to have things like thermal heating and cooling, solar panels, maybe a wind generator.

-----
I will repeat this again. Joni you are very fortanate. You have not taken on the day to day bills. And bravo to you. You're lifestyle both in the way that you live and the money that you and John bring in allows you more free time. Not everyone has been given these opportunities.

Mon, 2008-03-10 09:49 — sista

On more thing...

I always new that I'd be working for "the man." I am not that creative to go off on my own.

And to going off on your own takes a lot of time in this country. Hopefully one day this job of mine can turn into something a little less time consuming so that I have time to give back to the community.

Tue, 2008-03-04 01:40 — bigsis

What are you having for dessert?

Thanks for retooling your original thoughts. I guess I take issue with the whole concept of "work was cutting in to our playtime." If you eat chocolate cream pie for breakfast, lunch and dinner what are you going to have for dessert? Dessert is a lot better when we get it only once in awhile. Too much of it makes us fat and lazy. What's there to look forward to, to dream about, to save for? There's a time and a place for it and I know, "life is short, eat dessert first!" But, getting full on dessert doesn't leave room for the healthy things of life.
Have I overused the dessert metaphore? YES! I think you get my point!

Mon, 2008-02-25 10:42 — bigsis

Are you kidding me?

You just touched a huge nerve with me! You guys have been blessed with a great job for John and a wonderful support system of friends and family. What would your life look like without these? Figure out your passion and become a contributing member of society. Not for what you can get out of life but for what you can give!

Mon, 2008-02-25 00:06 — Joni

So what's the next step?

John and I had a long discussion last night on the way home from Middlebury, that it is a little unfair of me to rant against people being stuck in an endless job loop when I don't infact have a job, and contribute very little to our combined income. I really believe that people should be able to do what they want and be successfully (a different definition of success than as defined by mainstream culture) make a living at it- so I'm gong to try and do just that in the next year. In the next few days and weeks, I am going to really do a lot of soul searching to figure out my passion, and try to work that into some sort of 'job.' I will keep you posted.