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Posted by David Sherman on Friday, May 01, 2009 at 15:56:09 :
In Reply to: Most people have already. posted by David on Friday, May 01, 2009 at 15:34:54 :
I hear you, but what's magic about 40 hours? Within living memory, a standard shift was six ten-hour days and half a day on Sunday, and you had to be at your machine working when the starting whistle blew. Thanks to unions and automation, we got 40-hour weeks for wage-earners, but talk to any self-employed person, including farmers, about a 40-hour week and they'll just laugh at you. I've been self-employed most of my life, and when I've signed up to do a job for somebody, there's no such thing as "evenings" or "weekends" until it's done.
At this point, I could live like a king on what the federal government considers to be a "poverty-level" income. Admittedly I have my house paid for, but that didn't happen by accident either. There are two ends to the income equation. Everybody would always like to make more money. But the other end of the equation is to spend less. Who says everybody needs a 5000 square foot McMansion with slab granite countertops and a home theater room? The typical post-war tract house was around 1000-1500 square feet, and people had more children then. The kids shared a room, with bunk beds if necessary. People look back at the '50s as the good old days, but nobody, even childless couples, wants to live in that small of a house nowadays. Since the amount of upkeep, heating costs, and taxes scales up directly with the size of the house, big houses not only cost more to buy, but more to keep.
Who says every teenager needs their own cell phone and all the kids need brand-new clothes of whatever high-priced fashion brand they're whining about? Who says "vacation" means flying to some distant place and staying in a resort? When it comes to food, the cheapest food happens to also be the best for you. A sack of potatoes is a lot cheaper than an equivalent amount of potato chips. Anything you cook at home is cheaper than eating out. Work clothes can be patched. Cars can be repaired. Most electronic gizmos that can't be fixed can be done without. It's not that hard.
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