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John Byrne
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Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
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Posted: 11 November 2019 at 5:22am | IP Logged | 1 post reply

Problem Solved
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Brandon Frye
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Joined: 17 November 2004
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Posted: 11 November 2019 at 7:28am | IP Logged | 2 post reply


 QUOTE:
they earned it but worked hard to earn it ? I think a coal miner or someone who picks tomatoes works harder and earns far less .

So only physical labor constitutes hard work?

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John Byrne
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Posted: 11 November 2019 at 7:50am | IP Logged | 3 post reply

People often scoff when I talk about how physically exhausting my job can be.
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James Woodcock
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Posted: 11 November 2019 at 8:08am | IP Logged | 4 post reply

I once had a row with a mate after he posted that his work (measuring roads) was way harder than anyone who works in a suit.

I explained that I work in a suit and spend around 15 weeks away from my family each year, pretty much suffer permanent jet lag either from going somewhere or returning somewhere and work long hours at times because we just have to get the stuff done (the work doesn't take a break just because I'm in country), or I am on a support call to someone in another country.

'Of course I didn't mean YOU', he said, 'just others in suits'.
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Michael Roberts
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Posted: 11 November 2019 at 8:23am | IP Logged | 5 post reply


 QUOTE:

 QUOTE:
they earned it but worked hard to earn it ? I think a coal miner or someone who picks tomatoes works harder and earns far less .

So only physical labor constitutes hard work?


Physically strenuous jobs are associated with higher rates of disability after retirement and earlier deaths, despite the link between physical activity and improved health outcomes. So while not discounting the effort in other types of jobs, I think it's fair to describe work that literally shortens your life outcome and makes it more physically painful as "harder".
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Michael Penn
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Posted: 11 November 2019 at 8:49am | IP Logged | 6 post reply

I grew up very far from rich. Consequently, when young, I had to do quite a few blue collar jobs -- hard physical labor. Eventually I went to law school, became a lawyer, a professor. Been teaching for the past 22 years. It's work, for sure, and in my 50s, it's a lot more tiring than it was in my 30s. But my similar-age cousins, who became plumbers and electricians, painters and carpenters -- they can't continue to do their work much longer, and already slowed down a huge amount. Their work-end has to be in sight. They are the walking-wounded. Meanwhile, I see my colleagues in school teaching well into their 70s, even more. There's work and there's work
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John Byrne
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Posted: 11 November 2019 at 10:00am | IP Logged | 7 post reply

Most people don’t end up in blue collar jobs by choice. They end up there because the structure of society, specifically education, has failed them.
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Ronald Joseph
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Posted: 11 November 2019 at 10:13am | IP Logged | 8 post reply

I drove a tractor-trailer for nine years before getting into full-time freelancing. As physically demanding as my former profession was, it doesn't even begin to compare to the exhaustion I can feel after a day at the drafting table.
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Michael Penn
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Posted: 11 November 2019 at 10:49am | IP Logged | 9 post reply

My parents and a few other relatives made it out of Europe with nothing but their lives. Immigrants without a penny. First to be educated? Me!
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Eric Sofer
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Posted: 11 November 2019 at 10:54am | IP Logged | 10 post reply

My post was entirely serious. I've never been rich, I've never been poor - so I've had it pretty good that way.

I can't imagine what it would be to be rich. I know what it's like to be me, and my life has its rough spots. I know some of the rough spots of the poor - although a lot of that is from TV procedurals and movies.

I doubt that anyone has pondered about being rich with their problems, because all the benefits seem to outweigh the problems. I thought about it kinda hard before I posted that item.

Not WORSE than poor people - but different. And still rough. And yes, I certainly agree that if I had to be miserable, I'd rater be rich and miserable than poor and miserable. But the problems are there.
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Michael Roberts
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Posted: 11 November 2019 at 12:52pm | IP Logged | 11 post reply

Eric, I'm sorry then, but I think you are confused.

I can agree that money can't buy happiness. That has been backed by scientific research. I can also agree that everyone has problems and those problems are important to them. But you said:


 QUOTE:
Rich people suffer a lot more than middle class people do too.

Which is so risibly stupid as to be offensive. Do wealthy people have their own set of worries like everyone else? Most definitely. Do these worries involve not being able to afford college for their kids? Being one layoff away from losing their home? Not being able to pay a medical bill because insurance won't cover it? That's less likely.

But you know, they do have to worry about hiring an accountant, lots of dirty windows in their multiple homes, getting asked for donations, and boogeymen ransomers. 
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Eric Sofer
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Posted: 11 November 2019 at 12:58pm | IP Logged | 12 post reply

Michael R. - I assume that you are rich - good for you! And I also assume that you don't have many of the problems that I noted - better for you!

Until I experience it, I can only speculate about problems of the wealthy. But I feel certain that those problems exist. Perhaps with less notable frequency in the world, simply because there are fewer rich in the world than poor or middle class.

I may also have misused "more"; perhaps it should have been "as much, in different ways."

It seems, my friend, that we must agree to disagree; I speak on speculation, not fact. I hope you DO speak on fact; on your behalf, it'd be nice to be rich, even with problems.
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