Thursday, June 02, 2005

Today I read a Times editorial about the failure of liberalism in Europe. Dunno if he's right or not - there are statistics to support just about any claim you want to make (ask Al Gore!) - but there was one sentence that started the old pot stirring: "The core fact is that the European model is foundering under the fact that billions of people are willing to work harder than the Europeans are."

Is this a good thing? Do we want to consider the best society the one in which people work the most? Let's define work first - I assume he means economically productive labor, including management and executive jobs. Would we be a better society if we spent 80 hours at our jobs on average instead of 40? I don't think so. The happiest people I know are those who are the most active, who spend most if not all of their time proactively pursuing their goals. For some lucky folks, their job involves their passion, so for them, I suppose it would be the same thing. But what about everything else? Technically, the press could be considered a waste of resources as it only uses capital that could be more profitably invested elsewhere.

I suppose part of this is my own discontent with my career. I like my job and the people I work with - I just don't care about what I do. I will meet my deadlines and do good work, but I don't feel any kind of personal imperative to make a computer system work a little better so a company can spend a little less money and their stock can go up a little bit. Dunno where I'd be more fulfilled, though.

Hmm, dark set of posts this week. Will try to get in a better mood, for my sake as well as yours.
posted by Unknown 9:56 AM | 0 comments