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Working 80 Hr/wk making $100,000/yr versus 10 hr/wk making $50,000/yr with miniature retirements.
Is it better to work 80/hr work week making $100,000 and retire when your 65 as a millionanire or working 10hr workweek making $50,000/yr and taking miniature retirements through out your entire life.
Igor Vishnepolskiy
Deborah Harrison
So I've chosen to return to school -- studying something with virtually no prospects of garnering fiscal security in any way -- and resigned myself to a life of poverty. To paraphrase JS Mill "I'd rather be me, reading the books I want to read, helping the people I want to help and sleeping on a hardwood floor than be me, living in my turn of the century brownstone, going to my job on Wall St and helping people I despise to get wealthier and wealthier". Unlike the "pig" I was before, I now know the difference
Gisela McKay 30+
Even if I won a lottery tomorrow morning, I would continue to work by the afternoon.
I'm not a beach sitter - I get antsy by day three of my vacations. I have friends who work during the week and then on the weekend write music or novels and then claim that I am a workaholic. I maintain that if they were able to do what they love for money during the week, they'd be "workaholics" too.
Laurens Rademakers 50+
Science has shown that if you make US$ 5000 a year, you can be happy. US$5000/year is like a universal line of happiness.
So don't make too much money. But certainly: don't make too little either.
George Kong 30+
Happiness is a complex phenomenon - but it can be thought of as a balance - of fufilling needs and wants. If you live life in such a way as to meet your basic needs, plus a little, with enough time to develop and cultivate your mind - through a variety of experiences, including learning, socializing, adrenalizing, etc, and can do so in a manner that is sustainable, then you're probably going to be quite happy.
In modern society, the ability to achieve such a thing is very much dependent on money - but at the same time, money is far from the only requirement to achieving such things.
Damon Samuel
It may be 50 grand a year doesn't cover your cost of living in some places. It may be that you really love the work you are doing and would rather spend 80 hours a week doing it regardless of compensation.
On an aggregate scale I would suspect the majority of people given the choice would opt for 1/8th the work at 1/2 the pay. But a majority preference is not the same thing as better.
George Kong 30+
In global terms, you'll still lead a reasonable life (especially if you're only working 10hrs a week), but you'll certainly be considerably below the median income earner in the area.
OTOH, 50k is well above the median for nearly everywhere else in the world - the marginal utility of money decreases - the utility of extra money pales in comparison to the extra time recieved.
But if it's a job that you enjoy doing - it may still not be worthwhile working 80 hour weeks - if only for the simple reason that people require variety in their lives - and that 80 hours of anything (especially repetitive tasks) is dulling not just for life but for the mind.
That said, I'm certain that many in our world could still find reason to work the 80 hours - double pay for 8 times longer; because they can't figure out what to do with their free time, because they have family or loved ones that they want to support, or that they believe that they can bear the brunt of working hard now in order to work less later.
Personally, I think the fact that we can even view such an extensive working week as contemplatible, much less reasonable is a result of a systemic issue in society of the unhealthy relationship we have with money and life.
Steven Dilloway
anthony bruni 30+
lynn eschbach 30+