KimMatrix1Post



The Overworked Americans The Problem The overworked Americans make sustainability difficult. Juliet B. Schor, the author of the national bestsellers, claims that Americans work too much, eat too quickly, socialize too little, drive and sit in traffic for too many hours, don’t get enough sleep, and feel hurried too much of the time. She concerns that American’s way of life “undermines basic sources of wealth and well-being, such as strong family and community ties, a deep sense of meaning, and physical health.”1

Dara Cowell, the author of “Why Working Less is Better for the Globe,” challenges the consumerism-based American’s life style since longer hours plus labor-saving technology equals ever-increasing productivity. She further explains that without high annual growth to match productivity, the problem unemployment rises. On the other hand, maintaining growth means using more energy and resources, both in manpower and raw materials, which results in increased waste and pollution. Either way, the overworked Americans cause economic, environmental, and/or sustainability problems.

The Matrix When Americans work longer hours, we rely increasingly on convenience items, like fast food, disposable diapers, or bottled water. We become lazy where they don’t have motivation to do anything but sit and watch television or go on internet to socialize and shop online. The film, //What’s on Your Plate//, also criticizes our behavior that they participate in built-in obsolescence that has become standard business practice leaving mountainous landfills in its waste. Monique Tilford, acting executive director of the Centre for new American Dream points out that “When people are time-starved they don’t have enough time to be conscious consumers.” When we are busy, we simply look for cheap stuff or the items on advertisement.2

The Stakeholders We must understand working longer hours hurts us the most. Americans are not happy. We are lowering the quality of our life by working more. According to data on “Why Europeans Work Less Than Americans” by Steven Landsburgh, Europeans choose to work roughly 25 percent fewer hours and willingly make 25 percent less money. The average American works 25 hours a week; the average Frenchman 18; the average Italian a bit more than 16 and a half. Most importantly, Americans take fewer (and shorter) vacations. The average American takes off less than six weeks a year; the average Frenchman almost 12. Landsburgh explains the major differences between Americans and Europeans is that Europeans are willing to work less when their wages are cut. When a 20% across-the-board tax hike that happened in Europe past decades, Europeans fought for lower wages and shorter hours. While 20% of American workers are unionized, more than 80% of workers are unionized in France and Sweden. And while American unions have spent the past few decades fighting for higher wages, European unions have fought for shorter hours.

Potential Solutions 1. Work Less If one can support oneself with lower wage, one must work less for lower wage. By switching more people to less work-hour, more jobs are available. When people make enough money, they must put their greed aside and invest in healthier and better quality of life. They must understand wealth cannot increase the quality of life. Not surprisingly, in order to protect the environment, you have to consume less, which means you have to produce less, and you have to work less.

2. Demand More/Longer Vacations As it stands, America is the only industrial nation that offers no legal protection for vacations. The average vacation in the United States is now only a long weekend, and 25 percent of American workers have no paid vacation, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. When people have longer hours to rest, more people are more likely to //do// stuffs and //buy// stuffs. By demanding more and longer vacations, productivity at work will increase and quality of our life will improve.

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">3. Government Regulation <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Government must promote people to take vacation rather than promote consumerism. Instead of providing legal holidays to extend weekends for shopping, government should implement legal holidays for as long as a week so people can actually take //do// something. When whole nation is taking a break at same time, more people are likely taking even more vacations since vacations are more fun when they have got friends to share them with.

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Additional Resources <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Schor, Juliet. __The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure.__

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Notes <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">1. <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Schor, Juliet. “Less Work, More Lviing”. Yes Magazine. 2 September 2011. Web. 7 November 2011. < <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">[] <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">> <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">2. Colwell, Dara. “Why Working Less is Better for the Globe”. AlterNet. 21 May 2007. Web. 7 November 2011. < <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">[] <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">>

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Image Credits <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">All images and posters are from Take Back Your Time [|www.timeday.org] and [|www.right2vacation.org]

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Annotation 1 <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">1. Full citation.Colwell, Dara. “Why Working Less is Better for the Globe”. AlterNet. 21 May 2007. Web. 7 November 2011. < <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">[] <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">> <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">2. Where does the author work, what else has s/he written about, and what are her/his credentials?Dara Colwell is a freelance writer and teacher based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. As a seasoned writer with a background in newspaper journalism, she writes for newspapers, magazines, websites and businesses in Europe, England and America. She is also a teacher with an ESL (English as a Second Language) background, an adjunct professor at Webster University in the Netherlands, and teaches English at the University of Amsterdam. She received her Master degree from UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism in 1999. She has focused on social change, sustainability and promoting positive, proactive solutions. //<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">The Write GRRL: Dara Colwell. Web. 14 November 2011. <http://www.daracolwell.com/index.htm> // <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">3. What is the main topic or argument of the text? <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Overworking Americans are a problem with a great cost to the environment. Research suggests that practicing a simpler lifestyle can make people happier while using fewer resources. <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">4. Describe at least three ways that the main topic or argument is fleshed out. <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">i) When people work longer hours, they don’t pursue a sustainable life style. People become wasteful. People don’t have enough time to be conscious consumers. <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">ii) A simpler lifestyle is the answer to consumerism. By working less, people produce less. By producing less, people consume less. iii) People are happy due to those non-consumeristic, intrinsic values. People must take more vacation to focus on the family values. <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">5. What three quotes capture the critical import of the text? <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Quotation 1 - Conard Schmidt, an internationally known social activist and founder of the Work Less party, and an author of “Workers of the world RELAX”. //<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">As a society, we're working exponentially hard to decrease sustainability and it's making us miserable -- just look at how antidepressants are on the rise… In order to reduce our ecological footprint, we have to take working less very seriously. //

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Quotation 2 //<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Do the math: Longer hours plus labor-saving technology equals ever-increasing productivity. Without high annual growth to match productivity, there's unemployment. Maintaining growth means using more energy and resources, both in manpower and raw materials, which results in increased waste and pollution. //

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Quotation 3 - Monique Tilford, acting executive director of the Centre for a New American Dream, a Maryland group promoting environmentally and socially responsible consumption //<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Earning more often means spending money in ways that are environmentally detrimental. We're finding that to compensate for lack of time, you actually need more money to work those extra hours... When people are time-starved they don't have enough time to be conscious consumers. The overarching theme of our organization is to remind Americans that every single dollar they spend has a carbon impact, to make the connection. // <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">6. Explain how the argument and evidence in the text supports your research focus.The author argues that when people work longer hours, they rely increasingly on convenience items, like fast food, disposable diapers, or bottled water. It is very clear how stressful and busy American is characterized by watching TV after work, shopping online, eating delivered pizza, and socializing through twitter or Facebook. The overworked American has an unsustainable life style that produces lots of waste and promotes consumerism. <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Tim Kasser, who is an associate professor of psychology at Knox College, has examined the relationship between materialism and psychological well-being. He found that the Voluntary Simplicity group was simultaneously happier while using fewer resources. He concluded that people’s happiness is based on less materialistic, intrinsic goals, such as personal growth, family and community. <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">7. List at least two details or references from the text that you have used in your presentation and wiki post. <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Americans work 250 hours, or five weeks, more than the Brits, and a whopping 500 hours, or 12 and a half weeks, more than the Germans. <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The United States houses a mere 5 percent of the world's population, it accounts for 22 percent of its fossil fuel consumption, 50 percent of its solid waste, and, on average, each citizen consumes 53 times more goods than a person in China, according to the environmental nonprofit, Sierra Club. <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The average vacation in the United States is now only a long weekend, and 25 percent of American workers have no paid vacation <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">If Europe moved towards a U.S.-based economic model, it would consume 15-30 percent more energy by 2050. This would impact fuel prices worldwide and boost carbon emissions, resulting in additional global warming of 1-2 degrees Celsius.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">According to the United Nations' International Labor Organization **
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">According to Sierra Club **
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics **
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">According to a paper issued by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) in Washington, D.C. **

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Annotation 2 <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">1. Full citation.Landsburgh, Steven. “Why Europeans Work Less Than Americans”. Forbes. 23 May 2006. Web. 7 November 2011. < <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">[] <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">>

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">2. Where does the author work, what else has s/he written about, and what are her/his credentials?Steven Landsburg is an economics professor at the University of Rochester in New York and the author of The Armchair Economist and Fair Play. <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">3. What is the main topic or argument of the text?Well-rested Europeans are happier than wealthy stressed Americans.

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">4. Describe at least three ways that the main topic or argument is fleshed out. <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">i) Europeans are more productive. <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">ii) Europeans are willing to sacrifice their wages to spend more time for leisure and family.iii) The large marginal increase in the tax rates encouraged Europeans to choose less hours of work and lower wages.

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">5. What three quotes capture the critical import of the text? <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Quotation 1 //<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The average American works 25 hours a week; the average Frenchman 18; the average Italian a bit more than 16 and a half. Even the hardest-working Europeans--the British, who put in an average of 21 and half hours--are far more laid-back than their American cousins... Most important, Americans take fewer (and shorter) vacations. The average American takes off less than six weeks a year; the average Frenchman almost 12. The world champion vacationers are the Swedes, at 16 and a half weeks per year. //

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Quotation 2 //<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Here's the problem: A 20% increase in your marginal tax rate is more or less the same thing as a 20% pay cut. We have lots of data on how people respond to 20% pay cuts. By and large, though, their responses are nowhere near as dramatic as the changes we've seen in Europe. //

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Quotation 3 //<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Union-inspired regulations, by restricting individual choice, can only make those workers worse off. But here's what traditional theory overlooks: If you live in Europe, then union regulations not only force you to work less; they also force your friends to work less--which can be a blessing if you're trying to coordinate a camping trip. // <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">6. Explain how the argument and evidence in the text supports your research focus.The author presented the evidence that indicates the 20% of American workers are unionized while more than 80% of workers are unionized in France and Sweden. He argues that while American unions have spent the past few decades fighting for higher wages, European unions have fought for shorter hours. His evidence and argument clearly support the difference in American and European values. Americans want more money while European want a quality life. <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">7. List at least two details or references from the text that you have used in your presentation and wiki post. <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">In the early 1970s, European and U.S. marginal tax rates were comparable--and so were European and U.S. labor supplies. Between the 1970s and the 1990s, the U.S. marginal rate (inclusive of payroll taxes) stayed fixed at about 40%, while the French rate rose to 59% and the Italian rate to 64%. On a country-by-country basis, steeper marginal tax hikes are closely correlated with shorter workweeks and expanding vacations.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">According to Nobel laureate Edward Prescott **

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">When your wages are cut 20%, you take more vacations. But when your //friends'// wages are also cut 20%, you'll take even //more// vacations, because vacations are more fun when you've got friends to share them with. So a 20% across-the-board tax hike, which affects both you and your friends, yields a more dramatic response than a 20% cut in your own wages.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">According to the trio of economists (Ed Glaeser of Harvard, Bruce Sacerdote of Dartmouth and Jose Scheinkman of Princeton) **

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Annotation 3 <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">1. Full citation.Schor, Juliet. “Less Work, More Lviing”. Yes Magazine. 2 September 2011. Web. 7 November 2011. < <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">[] <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">> <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">2. Where does the author work, what else has s/he written about, and what are her/his credentials?Juliet B. Schor is professor of sociology at Boston College. She is the author of the national bestseller //The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don’t Need//. She graduated from Wesleyan University and received her Ph.D. in economics at the University of Massachusetts.

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">She earned fame when she was teaching at Harvard University and wrote, another bestseller, //The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure// in 1991. In her book, she illustrates a phenomenon of late twentieth-century life that has produced increasing stress on the individual, the family, and society as a whole. She states that leisure has been such a conspicuous casualty of prosperity in America.

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">She passionately works on issues of environmental sustainability and their relation to American’s lifestyles and the economy and the emergence of a conscious consumption movement. She is a co-founder and co-chair of the Board of the Center for a New American Dream, a national sustainability organization. <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">3. What is the main topic or argument of the text?Fewer work hours for people with jobs is a key step toward solving the current economic crisis and helps America to move away from unsustainable economic growth. <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">4. Describe at least three ways that the main topic or argument is fleshed out. <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">i) Fewer hours mean more jobs <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">ii) Living on less pay means consuming less, making more of the things one needs at home, and living lighteriii) The survey regarding shorter hours of work, which conducted by Schor since 1996, shows a sign that a culture shift toward shorter hours since 2004 <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">iv) People who have more time at home and less at work can switch to less energy-intensive but more time-consuming life style <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">v) More people are “Doing-it-yourself” or “self-provisioning” because of a culture shift and because in hard times people have more time and less money <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">5. What three quotes capture the critical import of the text? <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Quotation 1 //<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Americans work too much, eat too quickly, socialize too little, drive and sit in traffic for too many hours, don’t get enough sleep, and feel hurried too much of the time. It’s a way of life that undermines basic sources of wealth and well-being, such as strong family and community ties, a deep sense of meaning, and physical health. //

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Quotation 2 //<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">A 2004 study found that 44 percent of respondents were often or very often overworked, overwhelmed at their jobs, or unable to step back and process what’s going on. A third reported being chronically overworked. These overworked employees had much higher stress levels, worse physical health, higher rates of depression, and a reduced ability to take care of themselves than their less-pressured colleagues. //

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Quotation 3 //<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Earn less, spend less, emit and degrade less. That’s the formula. The more time a person has, the better his or her quality of life, and the easier it is to live sustainably. // <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">6. Explain how the argument and evidence in the text supports your research focus.Through many surveys and data, the author evidently proves that people who voluntarily start working less are generally pleased. The New Dream survey supports that 23 percent said they were not only happier, but they didn’t miss the money; sixty percent reported being happier, but missed the money to varying degrees; only 10 percent regretted the change. People are slowly realizing the value of the time and the ability to work for oneself. <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">7. List at least two details or references from the text that you have used in your presentation and wiki post. <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The average working person was putting in 180 more hours of work in 2006 than he or she was in 1979. The trends are more pronounced on a household basis. Many more men are working schedules in excess of 50 hours a week. (Thirty percent of male college graduates and 20 percent of all full-time male workers are on schedules that usually exceed 50 hours.)
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">According to government survey data **

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">If the United States were to shift to the working patterns of Western European countries, where workers spend on average 255 fewer hours per year at their jobs, energy consumption would decline about 20 percent.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">According to David Rosnick and Mark Weisbrot, the Center for Economic and Policy Research **

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">After controlling for income, households with longer working hours increased their spending on housing (buying larger homes with more appliances), transport (longer hours reduced the use
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">According to a French study **

of public transportation), and hotels and restaurants.

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">When households reduce their working hours by 1 percent, their greenhouse gas emissions go down by 0.8 percent.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">According to a recent Swedish study **