Are Americans too lazy?

[Deja Q]

http://money.cnn.com/2007/08/22/news/economy/lazy_american_workers.fortune/?postversion=2007082306

(Fortune Magazine) -- We Americans pride ourselves on being a hard-working bunch, so here's a thought to spoil your Labor Day rest: By global standards, we're lazy. We've been getting lazier. And the days of the American dolce vita may be numbered.

The surprising report of our relative sloth arrives in new research from the UN's International Labor Organization, which looks at working hours around the world. When it comes to what we might call hard work, meaning the proportion of workers who put in more than 48 hours a week, America is near the bottom of the heap. About 18% of our employed people work that much.
couch_potato.03.jpg
We're enjoying our wealth. Sweating less and having more is the idea.
jeffrey_immelt.03.jpg
GE chief Jeff Immelt is a believer in work-life balance, but wonders about America's ability to compete.

That's a higher proportion than in a few other developed countries like Norway, the Netherlands, and even Japan. But it's actually lower than in Switzerland and Britain, and way lower than in developing countries like Mexico and Thailand. It's drastically lower than in what may be the world's two hardest-working countries, South Korea and Peru, where the proportions are about 50%.
Is America falling apart? Ask Ayn Rand

It's bad enough to be told we're slackers in the world economy. What many Americans really won't want to believe is separate research showing that we're working much less than we used to.

Article has more. There is also a link in the article that goes to readers' opinions.



So, are we too lazy? Please vote and tell us why you think Americans are or are not lazy.

(Edited: Addendum/qualifier to question)

[Deja Q]

1. Before voting do read peoples' responses:

http://talkback.blogs.fortune.com/2007/08/22/are-americans-a-bunch-of-lazy-bums/

Definitely food for thought.

Especially if people don't have the time to raise their kids; aka "Family values".

[Hieronymus]

2. The French work 35 hours a week, have more vacation time, and still

have a better quality of life than Americans.:eyes:

[Deja Q]

3. So they're lazier than us.

I wonder if I should put up a poll regarding that...

[Xenotime]

32. Agreed. They are in a much better situation.

[Deja Q]

41. Despite something like a 10% unemployment rate...

Mind you, America's statistics do seem skewed; I think it's higher than 4.6% because the figure only includes people on UI. Which runs out after 6 months.

[Greenergrass]

4. It's not so cut and dried...

Most Americans are hard working and successful. Then you have those who think the way to get more for themselves is to have a politician steal from a hardworking family and give the money to them.

The left is going to blow it for us in 2008. Just you wait and see.

[Deja Q]

5. Very true. The tax code is slanted against SMBs and sole proprietors...

Welcome to DU! :party:

[La Lioness Priyanka]

13. the left is going to blow it for us?

[Deja Q]

17. An excellent question.

The Right isn't helping and some of the articles I've read seem very suspect. (as does the tangential issue as to when the media calls them "American corporations" versus "Multinational corporations"....)

Most people I know are leery of both sides these days; right or left has nothing to do with it.

I've fathomed theories on possible bright future outcomes for the US, but that Forbes article and its responses seem to put a wash on those theories. (I thought the competitiveness was about quality of work and the cost of living being the factors. Not sticker price of an item, which is all too many people seem to care about nowadays... and a lower sticker price does not translate into a solid, reliable product that need not be replaced.)

[HughBeaumont]

18. Someone may be sleepin' in the greener grass soon.

:)

[Greenergrass]

26. With the economy heading toward a slowdown, if not

recession, the non-stop talk about raising taxes and spending is not the way to win an election.

Bill Richardson and Al Gore maybe the only electable candidates soon.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

27. if we raise taxes on the wealthy and the upper middle class we will not lose the election

[Deja Q]

35. Define 'raising taxes'

Rescinding taxes* is not raising taxes.

Just as giving a department more money, but not as much money as for the previous year, isn't a tax cut.

We often hear the latter statement. But never the former one.

Particularly in a time of war, one we're told is supposed to be more significant than WW II, why are tax cuts being made and the deficit allowed to grow? Nobody had cut taxes during WW II...


* often made under the guise it would help everybody but sadly haven't

[Name removed]

53. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[krabigirl]

6. are they kidding?

At my last job, we were expected to work 60-hour weeks (in the IT field). Some of my coworkers were logging closer to 80 hours. Lazy? what a joke!! Sure, some people surf the web all day, but I busted my a$$ at that stupid job until our whole department was laid off due to cost cutting measures. In the future, I aspire to be "lazier" and not give my employer that much of my life. As for now, I am home with my kids, so I am at work all the time. :)

I read the comments on the blog. Some people mentioned our increasing waistlines as being indicative of us becoming lazier. perhaps it's because we spend so much time sitting in our cubes???

[Deja Q]

7. Exactly.

Time at work means less time for the family, of which 'family values' gets its importance. As far as I knew...

Some people are lazy, yes. But many jobs are sedentary in nature, period, and then add in commutes (some of which are needlessly long but others are inevitable given how industrial, residential, and commerce zones are divided)... plus time for chores and other things, especially if the people work more than one job just for basic needs.

It isn't cut and dry, and the 'yes' people have some merit, but it goes far far deeper and isn't constrained to "one side".

[mentalsolstice]

52. Yup.

The one corporate IT job turned into a nightmare. In four years, I had only one Christmas off and nasty comments were made by my team-members that had kids (I may not have kids, but I'm somebody's child). Then there were the 50 hour weeks. And on-call weekends, where I had to respond within 30 minutes. So I couldn't partake in any activities that I couldn't immediately abandon, or took me more than 30 min. away from my office (which was 15-20 min. from my house). Vacations were also a nightmare. If my plans were going to me out of range of my cell phone plan, my manager panicked. You should've seen his face when I told him we were going to Nova Scotia, and we had NO itinerary. Also, vacation was "use or lose" at the end of the year, no matter the reasons you didn't use it.

[KansDem]

8. I would vote in this poll but find the effort too taxing...

Maybe later, but for now...:boring:

[Deja Q]

39. You know, there are better things to be sarcastic toward... or for taking a leak on.

Such as an electric fence?

No wonder people leave DU in droves. With responses like yours, there's no point in discussing much of anything.

[KansDem]

42. It was a joke, OK?

I was simply illustrating your point by personifying that point. "Are Americans too lazy? I don't know; perhaps I'll vote on that later." It was an attempt at the humor I see expressed here on DU from time to time; humor that I find hilarious. But, if you've taken offense, I apologize!

Relax and enjoy life. :hi:

[The2ndWheel]

9. At what?

Too busy more like it. Which gives us no time. Which then requires that we come up with quicker ways of getting there. The faster we get there, the more we can do, so the busier we get.

I know that I'm lazy though. Not all that busy either(which is good in some ways, lonely in others).

[Deja Q]

12. Quite. And if we try to wal, jog, or bike to work,

it's impossible to get there on time due to x number of factors. It's unique per person, but to some extent everyone is a factor. (families, the new F-word, being the most obvious example of time-wasting functions that impede profits) We're still a society, like it or not...

Of course, proper foods and vegetables cost so much that it gets harder to remain of proper weight as well. The cheaper stuff contains mostly carbs and chemicals or the least nutrient parts of foods ('broccoli cuts', for example, are just stalks; not the nutrient rich florets... guess which is cheaper, and guess which one isn't nearly as good as the other... :D )

[HughBeaumont]

10. What a bunch of shite.

We have a two-income family. Most families nowadays are two-income. Nowadays, one income only buys an assload of debt before you know it. It's an undisputed fact that we not only work longer hours than our 70s counterparts, but also receive less vacation time than most industrialized nations.

Yeah, I love my life of spending half to 2/3 of my day in my fabric-walled box in downtown Cleveland; away from my family, friends, sunlight, anything that resembles fun, but I'm still being told by some fucking Welchite pro-job-offshorer like Jeff Omlette that I'm simply not working hard ENOUGH because I'm not making 1/10th the wage I am now. He probably beat off over the Dickensian conditions of the Chinese: "If only I can get my American bitches to be like THESE people!!"

[Deja Q]

14. Don't forget; the "networking" many execs do is merely playing golf with their buddies.

It's not as simple as that either, but of the 4 CEOs I've worked with, 3 spent most of their time hitting a ball with a stick and were far fatter then than even I am now.

Yet we're lazy, stupid, and have no interest to do things and we're the problem in this 'globalized market'. I wholly agree; it's bull. There are many factors, but that article was slanted spin that would make even FOX blush in abject embarrassment.

[HughBeaumont]

16. It's because we're not eating bugs or living under bridges.

Because they need the food for their banquets and our land for another golf course/country club. Eminent Domain, you know.

Does anyone see that the harder we work, the less seems to come out of it? Krugman once said that this is a "Tchotcke Economy": pundits are blinded by all the affordable toys we get our hands on to notice that all of the necessities are less affordable and within reach of the average person.

[Deja Q]

19. The $600 laptop looks appealing,

but if it's going to break after the 91st day when that warranty ends, it becomes rather more expensive fairly quickly. Even the $1500 models aren't as solid as they used to be, despite still being more solid than the $600 ones...

Not to mention time. Multiple jobs means no time TO study, not to mention family time for those who want to have a family and raise them right.

While I can make arguments against video game systems, ipods, and other Oprah and Steve-satisfying topics, that is a tangential issue compared to the ones people will more readily see -- which includes offshoring and the replacement of more solid work for flimsy work.

[shari]

11. They're Jealous

Don't they know that fat, lazy, stupid people like us don't have to work because we're all rich?

[sandnsea]

15. No, but journalists have lazy minds

and don't think anymore.

Corporations won't pay overtime, and do everything they can to keep employees from getting hours to get benefits - and these idiots translate that to laziness.

[BlooInBloo]

20. Americans pride themselves on being proud - nothing more.

[waiting for hope]

21. Lazy?

49% of the public voted for the dickwad twice!!! without even looking at his history where he has failed at everything he's done. That's lazy.

[SunDrop23]

22. Lazy is putting it mildly.

[Deja Q]

25. Please expand on your answer; why are Americans lazy?

Maybe the 'yes' answers got so high because people were thinking of a context not directly related to the article...

In some ways, some Americans are lazy. But I don't think it's as cut and dry as some journalists try to pawn it off as being.

[marions ghost]

31. yes people here may take it as meaning

Americans are too lazy to research political candidates or enlighten themselves mentally instead of watching sports on their day off. Something like that.

On the other hand the meaning of the writer seems directly tied to job performance & wages --implying that doing more work for the same pay will help America compete. "Sacrifice"....message.

The people I know work like dogs (in research, teaching, healthcare, small business). They have NO free time. What little there is is caught up with family, child, house and elder care on top of their jobs.

I'm really offended by this article with it's smug "crack the whip harder" message....

People may be UNINFORMED, but Americans as a whole are NOT lazy.

[Deja Q]

34. Meanwhile, the other media articles saying the consumers are witholding spending are made

Which is a crock, too many people can barely afford making ends meet for their families. It seems consumers are damned either way?

Thank you much for your response.

[marions ghost]

23. Smells like BS to me....

With lines like this...

"That's one way that markets equilibrate. Another way may affect how hard we work. It's obvious that if real total pay is going nowhere, we may have to work harder just to improve our living standard."

--Isn't this a message to managers to crack the whips harder on the wage slaves & likely the wage slaves aren't reading this...SO do they want us to kill ourselves like the Japanese, for even less benefits?

Do you KNOW anybody who has a full-time job who does NOT work "hard enough?" I don't.

Thanks for bringing this up. I'm surprised so many agree that we are "lazy" --I don't see it. My brother has a business in another country and he thinks Americans work too hard for too little & are generally exploited.

Why does anyone here think we are, as a nation, lazy? :shrug: What's the evidence for that?

-----------------------
(What's with the Ayn Rand reference...I don't get that)

[shari]

28. Lazy?

I don't know anyone who's lazy. I know blue-collar workers, professionals, young and old, and I don't know one single person who is lazy. If they can't make it on the income from one job, then they get two jobs. I don't know anyone who doesn't cut their own grass, do their own laundry or clean their own home, and that's after working a full-time job.

[Deja Q]

33. The Auntie Ayn reference was accidentally copied over...

though in an ironic way, it's tangentially apropos...

[DutchLiberal]

24. 21 people voted "yes"? Americans are not lazy. They're always working! Sometimes even three jobs at

a time!

Compare a regular American's workweek/month/year to a European's. Americans lazy? No way.

[Deja Q]

36. Exactly. Why isn't that author attacking the Europeans?

;)

[DutchLiberal]

44. Yeah! We're lazy!!

But seriously: I have the impression Americans, generally speaking, work very hard, and much more than Europeans.

[meow2u3]

29. These dolts like to make us look lazy because they're slavedrivers

because, by their idea of "global standards", we're supposed to work 18 hours a day, 7 days a week, and have little or nothing to show for our hard work.

To cover up for their wish to enslave the world, corporate fat cats are now trying to call Americans lazy because we not only demand a healthy balance between work and our home life, but also we expect our bosses to shell out enough money for us to live on without being forced to depend on the government to feed, clothe, and house us.

[Deja Q]

37. And as Rush, Bill, Tom B., and the rest like to say, we shouldn't depend on government, AND

nobody owes anyone anything.

:shrug:

[melody]

30. Oh, so now it's our fault

The other day, the consumers were causing the slide by not buying -- now we're not working hard enough.

When you've seen unions attacked, wages slide, OSHA weakened, and in every way corporation turned into a
bully force against their workers, gosh, I wonder why we aren't "working hard enough".

Why don't they ask those miners at the bottom of the goddamned mine in Utah?

[Deja Q]

38. Would you write an OP or editorial on what you just said?

Combined with the link from my OP to cite the contrary to the links you'd referred to, you'd get one that would deserve 75 recommendations.

[melody]

45. I'm working on that right now, actually

And will include the links from your OP -- excellent idea.

[The Straight Story]

40. It's because we are more free and not as big of corporate slaves as other slackers

They work hard, we work smart. And so on...

:)

[angstlessk]

43. IF there are ADVANCED societies in outter space...BET MONEY

they do not work AT ALL but have figured out a way to let the mechanics do all the bad/hard stuff. LAZY is not bad! Lazy is what people WORK TOWARDS!!! (see retirement)

[porphyrian]

46. Hell, no! We're not lazy enough!

Most of us barely even touch our slacking potential. If we really put our minds to it, there would be nothing that we wouldn't do.

[treestar]

47. That's crazy

Other cultures perceive us as out of whack for working so hard.

We are defined by our work and generally brag rather than complain about working a lot of hours.

We work through meals. We "socialize" at what is really work.

I read a piece once advising foreigners who came to the U.S. about the culture, etc. It told them we are always friendly at work but that doesn't mean we really want to be friends. We compartmentalize, and have friends only for each specific activity and don't cross those into other areas - for instance playing softball and having friends there but never seeing them outside the softball games - same for work, etc.

[JVS]

48. We're the hardest working fuckers in showbusiness!

[bemildred]

49. CNN gives another blow job to our corporate "leaders". nt

[mentalsolstice]

50. Yes and no!

Individually, I think we are. As a whole, no. Individually we're too dependent on TV, fast food, video games, etc. As whole, however, we work longer hours than other developed nations, and with absolutely no guarantee for vacation or sick leave. We're corporate whores compared to our European counterparts.

[BoneDaddy]

51. Lazier entails a strong

value judgement. I know Americans who are lazy and those who are not. If you mean do we value our time (other than work) to spend it with those we love in a very meaningful manner, absofuckinglutely. Does it mean I am lazy cause I want to work less? Hell no. I know what is important in life. I do not make an extravagant living. My family lives very modestly. What has altered is our need for some lavish lifestyle...silly.