Workaholics

Isn’t is interesting how society comes full circle time and time again. It used to be we sent the men out on the boats or down the mines, working their guts out to feed their family, and god help them if they have no children to care for them when they’re too old to work.

We went through a period of congratulating ourselves that this was no longer the case – we work 9 to 5, an easy life, home on the weekends and everybody gets to retire and live happily ever after. But today it seems we’re reverting – people are forced to work harder, and longer just to bring home enough money to meet costs, and retirement, let alone early retirement is not immediately an option. I read somewhere yesterday that more than half of today’s young adults believe home ownership is an unnatainable goal (this is from a survey done within Australia). What a frightening thought.

Of course, we never did achieve that utopia – there were still people in the mines, and todays equivalents of the mines – fast food joints, milk bars, supermarkets etc. Not to say that there’s no value in those jobs – just they’re the usual suspects for students or people who have not yet embarked upon a career to end up in. But the men and women beavering away at three jobs just to pay their kids school fees don’t really make for election week TV now do they…

Cynicism – now there’s another symptom of today’s life Guilty as charged. In many ways the world is a better place now, but in many ways it’s beginning to look strangely like the dark ages – only now we have electricity so when we turn on the lights we can pretend it’s not that bad…