Some argue that people in 21st century live hectic lives becuase they have to compete each other. However, from my point of view, people nowdays enjoy much more spare times compared to old people. This is mainly because economic situation has improved a lot and people put more value on hapiness than money.
To begin with, people live economically prosperous lives. Different from old days when individuals had to work over four-teen hours a day, now people can make same amount of money by woking much less time since economy gets better and better. This allowed many people to have chance to live more relaxable lives and work less. To illustrate, in my grandparents' childhood, they had to work all day long to maintain their lives since economy was so poor. They earned only two or three dollars a day for ten hours's labor. However, now, the situation is a lot different and people make money much easier.
Moreover, people consider hapiness or welfare before money. In the past, many thought that high income was the most important factor when getting a job because they had difficulty making money. However, as many things have changed, people started to realize that enjoying their lives is much more critical than having expensive jewelries or becoming rich people. For example, while teachers were not that popular job in the past, nowadays, it is one of the most popular jobs. This is mostly attributted to the fact that teachers have several month's vacations while pay is a little bit lower than other jobs.
In closing, I firmly believe that people in current society spend higher portion of their time on their own pleasure than on their jobs because of the better economic situation and change in value systems. Now, people do not just 'live'. They 'enjoy' their lives. |