40+ Hours a Week is Bad
for You and the Nation

By Matt Robesch
The Free Press

Working 40 hours a week or more is simply unhealthy. So why do it? From across America there comes a resounding cry of "Because I have to!" Actually, you don't. It is certainly easy to understand why some may feel they are working because they "have to." But if you look at those who feel forced to work 40 or more hours a week, you will probably find a list of expenses that looks something like this:
Depending on the person, this list could be endless. All of the above are expensive, some immediately, some over time. So, sure, people who have a list like this are likely to be found "manacled" to the 40- to 60-hour work week mentality. But remember all of these things are choices not requirements. If you consider yourself to be working hard to make ends meet, what you really may be doing is playing a life-long game of catch up with irrational spending habits brought on by impulses to obey social pressures.

How often do you work overtime? Some companies actually require it.

Working too much wears down your immune system and contributes to increased illness. How often do you go to work when you aren't feeling well? How could this possibly be good for you? Is it good when an entire nation works like this? It's hard to imagine anyone likes working under these conditions. What can you do?

Stop spending so much money! Restrain that spending impulse. Accomplish this and you won't have to work so hard to earn so much. It's just logical. There's a lot to be said for living simply. Wouldn't you like to have no debt? Wouldn't you feel better about owning an object like a car, a boombox, or even an ice cream sundae, if you paid for it with cash you had already earned, rather than with a credit card you'll have to pay off?

It's really very simple. Spend less = work less. If someone chooses to work less than you, don't call them "slack." Pat them on the back and ask them how they pull it off.

Some European nations have actually outlawed overtime. The reason: Overtime contributes to unemployment. Think about it . . . any hours you work over 40 a week are hours that could've gone to another person, creating another job.

In Germany and Denmark, for example, the work week has been limited to 35 to 37 hours and experimentation with the four-day work week has been underway for years with positive results. People in these countries work less, spend more time with their families and, as a result, their national stress levels have been effectively reduced.

This new perspective on overtime is likely to become the European standard. The European Community is equalizing the rules and regulations among its member states in order to discourage immigration within its borders (Yet another reason why the more socialist-oriented EC is light years ahead of capitalist-driven NAFTA).

According to J. Hughes, co-editor of Eco-Socialist Review, "European workers, having organized through socialist parties and trade unions, have won month-long vacations every year, sick leaves and parental leaves with pay. Europeans work an average of 1,600 hours per year. American workers, represented only weakly and ineffectually by the AFL-CIO and the Democratic Party, work 2,000 hours per year, with only one week of vacation per year, and no paid leave." The point is, there are nations on this planet that don't approach work as suicidally as Americans do.

The new Europe is relaxing its work ethic and creating more jobs. So, we must ask . . . does the "New World Order" have the U.S. changing foreign nations into hyper-consumer, corporate spending slaves, or are the more relaxed nations going to influence the US into calming down its tragic earning/spending disorder?

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Contents on this page were published in the December/January, 1996 edition of the Washington Free Press.
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