Date: Sat, 02 Jun 2001 10:38:49 +0100
Subject: Re: [Fwd: Weeping in a Rolls-Royce]


Hugh,

Thanks, that explains my confusion, it is difficult if not impossible to draw
global certainties from local empirical evidence.

regards

sdv

hugh bone wrote:

> Steve and All,
>
> This link takes you to an excerpt from Barbara Ehrenreich's book,
> "Nickled and Dimed".  She is a nationally recognized writer,  a woman in her
> sixties, who took various low-paid jobs a few years ago, and relates her
> experiences in this book.
>
> Couples who both work, and earn average or better than average pay, and have
> children in school, or pre-school, must often work more than 80 hrs. per
> week to hold their jobs.  Real wages have changed little in 20 years, but
> the cost of living has increased a great deal.
>
> Parents of today's baby boomers, in the post-WWII era of strong unions,
> could often live on a single income, get medical care without the
> obstruction and costs of HMO's.  However,
> nuclear families have dwindled to 23.5% according to the 2000 census, and
> they may fare better than the majority of families of single moms and single
> pops.
>
> An influx of millions of illegal aliens who work "off-the-books", and the
> export of most U.S clothing factories to $1 a day, countries of the third
> world, are factors which increase the competition for decent jobs, and keep
> wages low.
>
> HB
>
> http://www.findarticles.com/m1111/1784_298/53530961/p22/article.jhtml?cf=0
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> Steve wrote:
>
> > All
> >
> > I was interested in this email (from sciene as culture list) because of
> the
> > extraordinay claims that we are working more now than in the 1960s. I feel
> deeply
> > suspicious of this claim. My suspicions are founded on the distrust I feel
> for
> > people who suggest things are worse now than they were for our parents and
> > grandparents - this level of pessimism always makes me want to scrutinise
> their
> > evidence. On a personal basis however I remember my father working
> standard 6 day
> > weeks and occasionally 7 days - in addition he only had two weeks holiday.
> His
> > father worked the same regime but only one weeks unpaid holiday a year. To
> claim
> > that a 21st worker is working longer hours than our forefathers is I
> suspect to
> > massage the evidence in unacceptable ways.
> >
> > Compare these hours to myself - I never work weekends without days off in
> leiu-
> > 25days holiday a year, have a standard 37.5 hours working week and work
> probably 45
> > hours and sometimes 50 hrs a week if travelling to the USA on business..
> These are
> > not unsual working hours -
> >
> > It is true however that working time directives are essential - standard
> 30 hour
> > weeks - preferably over 4 days... are a desirable and achievable goal.
> >
> > regards
> >
> > sdv
> >
> > Ian Pitchford wrote:
> >
> > > NEW STATESMAN
> > > Book Reviews - Weeping in a Rolls-Royce
> > >
> > > Book Reviews
> > > Christopher Gasson Monday 28th May 2001
> > >
> > > Blood, Sweat and Tears: the evolution of work
> > > Richard Donkin Texere, 400pp, 18.99
> > > ISBN 1587990768
> > >
> > > It is difficult not to feel a sense of betrayal about technological
> progress.
> > > We have invented machines to do work for us, but the more ingenious our
> > > inventions, the harder we find ourselves working. We have exchanged 40
> hours of
> > > slavery in a soot-covered factory for a 70-hour week chained within the
> > > granite-faced confines of the giants of the new global service economy.
> The
> > > average American now works one month a year longer than he or she did in
> the
> > > 1960s. Britons, similarly, seem to be increasingly choosing work over
> leisure.
> > >
> > > As Richard Donkin makes clear in his broad history of work, Blood, Sweat
> and
> > > Tears, we have only ourselves to blame for so readily giving up our
> lives to
> > > our employers. It is a combination of our desires always staying one
> step ahead
> > > of our ability to afford them, our psychological need to define
> ourselves by
> > > our work, and an immutable work ethic, that continues to drive us long
> after
> > > the religion that spawned it ceased to be relevant.
> > >
> > > Full text:
> > > http://www.newstatesman.co.uk/200105280050.htm
> > >
> > > To view archive/subscribe/unsubscribe/select DIGEST go to
> > > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/radical-science
> > >
> > > Read The Human Nature Daily Review every day
> > > http://human-nature.com/nibbs
> > >
> > > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
> http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
> >
> >