Battle Royale: Work v Home

Have you ever stopped to think about how much of our lives are dominated by our work?

Is it more common to move for work, rather than demand work come to one’s neighborhood? I think it is. (Bedroom communities). Of course, this has always happened and always will, and it’s not entirely evil in all cases. But doesn’t that send a subtle message that we’ll do anything for the almighty dollar, when done in the aggregate?

I can’t help but feel that we depend on our jobs to give order to our lives. Work is good, it builds community, demands we apply ourselves, provides for an economy, etc. It ought not, however, order a life. That role belongs solely to the institution of the family, which, by and large, pays the price of our role in the economy being promoted. Work ought to be subservient in all cases and without exception to the family.

Yes, families will sacrifice a bit for work reasons. Sometimes a king will forgive a tax from a peasant too; both are (ideally) atypical, and both never forget their role relative to the other.

Americans receive (or demand) the lowest average amount of time off from their workplace each year among comparable world economies. We also leave the most time off on the table as a percentage of what we’re given. We have the longest commuting time of any comparable economy.

Could it just maybe be the case that our family life is a bit more weakened than that of these comparable nations’ families, by virtue of the fact that they aren’t owned by work?