Time to think about planning for 2016. Could this be the right time to quit your job?
In theory, the U.S. is a nation influenced by the Protestant work ethic, but in practice the percentage of Americans who choose to work is falling (chart). I’m listening to The Other Side of History: Daily Life in the Ancient World
As a suburban dog walker who mostly works from home, I tend to meet other suburbanites with dogs who are home during the day. This is a rich suburb so everyone is well-educated. The two dog-walkers whom I have met most recently are both attorneys who were at least moderately successful in the working world but who now choose not to work. Both women appear to be in their late 40s and describe having working husbands. One cheerfully said “My son is now in third grade so he doesn’t need me anymore,” and went on to explain that she volunteers on a library board and is writing a mystery novel (more for personal satisfaction than with any hope of earning money via publication). With their law degrees and employment experience, either woman could easily find a better-than-average job (maybe being a junior lawyer in a big firm isn’t a better-than-average job but plenty of companies, non-profits, and government agencies hire attorneys as well).
I tried a quick Google search and couldn’t find any psychology studies on whether having a job makes a person happier or not. These women, along with a lot of other Americans, are making presumably well-informed decisions that it wouldn’t make them happier to have a job, even one that they could do from home.
[Note that it is just coincidence that the two highly qualified non-workers whom I met happen to be women. I also know of plenty of “working-age”men who aren’t either working or performing hands-on child care. Some made money in an earlier phase of life. Several sued their high-earning wives under Massachusetts family law and are now living off the proceeds of those lawsuits (while having sex with younger women). Some are married to high-earning women.]
Readers: What do we think? Were the Calvinists right or the Ancient Greeks? If working is so great, why do people who are well-qualified and who know from personal experience what it is like to work choose not to work?
I think the work has to have personal meaning, either that you are engaged in building something or serving other people (social engagement, also). How much opportunity did the Ancient Greeks have to engage in work that led to increased productivity or better living conditions?
Most people are slaves to their jobs, family obligations, mortgages, other debt, community expectations, etc. You have hinted that you have somehow managed to take control of your life. Congratulations.
Hi Phil,
Since you mentioned the Ancient Greeks, I couldn’t resist a pseudo-philosophical comment…
For a naturalist, I believe the answer would be simple: The cycles of nature are always in motion. A stream in motion teams with life and renews (unless it happens to be flooding your basement). Air molecules in motion result in a breeze, which is a respite or a curse depending on one’s perspective. A stagnant pool breeds disease and decay. But even in this case, there is a cycle of motion in the decay.
I would like to believe that the Ancient Greeks might say something along the lines of…
“Even one who chooses not to work must have a purpose, and maintain continuous motion to exist in this world. Whether or not one would find pleasure and fulfillment in a predominant cycle of decay is an altogether different matter…”
Or… I could be inadvertently ripping off a fortune cookie… who knows…
Hmm. That labor force participation rate chart looks a lot less scary when the period is stretched back to 1948. Also, it would be interesting to see the data for only men.
Phil,
How does being in a rich neighborhood equate with well-educated? The Forbes 400 biographies don’t agree with you. Or I guess the real question is in what’s your definition of “rich”?
Mine is 15 to 20 million dollars plus.
Mark: I don’t think that our median neighbor is worth $15 million. http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/real_estate/2011/12/the-10-wealthiest-zip-codes-in-mass.html#i1 shows that the very wealthiest town in Massachusetts had an “average net worth” of $2.4 million back in 2010.
Anyway, as it happens a typical neighbor here has a professional degree or a graduate degree. Perhaps you would disagree that a law degree, MBA, MD, or PhD makes a person “well-educated” but I was using the term in the sense of “has a post-graduate degree from a selective university.”
G C: If we toss out the Protestant work ethic, the falling labor force participation rate is not “scary” but, in fact, something to be celebrated! We’re successful enough as a society that fewer of us have to work.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otium
As the saying goes, work is for suckers. Why work when you can get it for free? Beautiful women and cats can attest to that. As long as you can find someone to take care of you, why work for someone else? Does anyone really like having a boss? I sure don’t and I actually like my work. But there are many cool things I’d do in my free time (hacking code, use a 3d printer, attend performances, college lectures at MIT/Harvard). In this day and age there are so many options, it is impossible to get bored or feel useless.
Marriage is the easiest ticket to such a lifestyle. Those people you met probably went to law/medical/etc for several reasons one of them being to find the best eligible bachelor with good financial prospects to marry and in case that does not happen, at least they have the degree to secure income sans working sucker.
Come to think of it, it is pretty amazing how many “monetarily unproductive” people we are able to support on just a fraction of the eligible work force.
We’re all products of our culture, upbringing, and personal experience. I was raised by parents who ascended from the lower/middle class to the upper/middle class. They taught me that hard work was an end in itself, and that to a large extent defines me. I have other interests than work, but I think I’d be genuinely unhappy / bored if I just retired at 35, even though I could. I have friends who think I’m crazy for continuing to work, just as I think they’re crazy for not wanting to.
So perhaps the Greeks had it right with the dictum: “know thyself”. Figure out for yourself what makes you happy, and pursue that to the extent possible. In my case, right now, it’s working!
We are (possibly) fast approaching a time when there will just be no need for the services that are performed by most humans today in Western countries. “Work” will be done by robots or by people in some other country where wages are lower. Already in places like Spain and Greece, half of young people have no jobs and at the current pace may never find work. How and at what level we will support all the people who are not working is an unsolved question.
We are (possibly) fast approaching a time when there will just be no need for the services that are performed by most humans today in Western countries. “Work” will be done by robots or by people in some other country where wages are lower. Already in places like Spain and Greece, half of young people have no jobs and at the current pace may never find work. How and at what level we will support all the people who are not working is an unsolved question.
Why not call these dog-walking acquaintances what they apparently are, early retirees? From your description, they are very comfortably retired on the largesse of their working spouses and accumulated fortunes. The global nomads are similarly retired, similarly self or other-supported, are they not?
I was using the term in the sense of “has a post-graduate degree from a selective university.
Would my MBA from the University of Florida qualify? Had to go to my “safety school” (on a 50% tuition scholarship!) after Stanford turned me down despite my 720 GMAT.
The average GMAT at Stanford is (nowadays at least) 733 so why would you be surprised that they turned you down with a 720?
University of Florida is #37 in the US News Bus school rankings. It rejects 76% of applicants (vs. a 93% rejection rate at Stanford) so in that sense it is selective but it’s not really what comes to mind when you say “selective university”, at least not to me. I don’t mean to sound snobby but you asked so I’m giving you my honest answer.
It strikes me that with a 720 GMAT you might have had a fair shot at Duke, U Va, Cornell, Michigan etc. so it’s not clear to me why you opted for Hough.
@Jack D: Good points. This was almost twenty years ago. At that time, Stanford’s average GMAT was something like 680; still had just a 7% acceptance rate. It seems like average GMATs have been increasing since that time. Right, one doesn’t think of UF as an “elite” university though they have creeped up the rankings over the years. The very low tuition influenced my decision to go to UF – just $4000 total for the 2-year traditional MBA program.
#37 out of all business schools in the U.S. (where you can’t spit in the street without hitting an MBA) sounds pretty selective to me! And paying $2,000/year in tuition also seems like a sign of business savvy! I know plenty of people who paid $100,000+ in tuition to our top business schools here in Boston and who have mediocre careers. You won’t find them featured in the promotional materials for said schools!
@philg: mediocre careers
Yep, I escaped grad school with zero debt, but I’m very familiar with a mediocre career. Due to a couple of layoffs and missed opportunities, the “Great Recession” and six-year “jobless recovery, crushing competition, an over supply of labor at all levels of the workforce, and an aversion to risk, my salary today is exactly what it was in 1998 prior to starting my MBA.
Anyway, the MBA gained me some job flexibility and workplace respect and opened up a wide range of interesting job functions across industries for me outside of government defense C programming. Nonetheless, due to regular savings, a relatively low cost of living, and a couple of fortuitous real estate purchases, I was able to accumulate a $1 million net worth by age 50.
I never understood the meaning of “Protestant work ethic” (I know the origin of the expression). Work has nothing to do with wright or wrong (personal opinion).
By the way, many of the richest (per capita) regions or Europe are Catholic (Lombardy, Bavaria, Paris…). How come Catholic Northern Italy is so much wealthier than “Protestant” Scotland? Why is Boston richer than so many more “Protestant” cities? Perhaps wealth has not such a close relationship with “work’ or it could be that Protestants don’t work really that hard…