Published February 08, 2017
What has our current work environment done to our population?
First, it separates families. People have to move hundreds, or thousands, of miles from their families to find a job. Especially if they want a job that pays above minimum wage. For every job that does pay a living wage, there are over 10,000 that do not.
Second, the number of hours worked (including transportation time). 10+ hours a day, five to six days a week. Basically, they crawl out bed, stumble to work, stumble home, and back to bed. Not much of a home, mostly a sleeping place.
This should leave a person with 8 days a month to live.
Except.
They have any repair work. Grocery chopping, cooking, cleaning, washing dishes, baths, laundry, taxes, and any other vital chores. Males use two days for this. Women are expected to do the majority of the work. Still. So they use up six of those days on keeping the house running.
That leaves about 16 hours a month to live. Not much time broken up over three to four days.
Especially if they have any other obligations.
From the time a person starts working, until they retire, they have 16 hours a month of actual living time. Mostly spent resting and recuperating from the over stresses of the week before.
People wonder why parents miss their kids growing up. They may see them five minutes a day. Parents claim their kid is small child, when in reality, they are eighteen.
Something is wrong when people spend so much time away from those who should matter most.
Something is wrong when people have no time to do the things that matter in life - cooking, building and repairing their homes, sewing clothes, the things that make life live-able. The pieces that make life really alive.
We've known this for generations. TV, books, radio, and songs. Remember the song "Cat's In The Cradle?"
We need clean air, clean water, and an opportunity for equality for all. Life for all.
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