The 50 hour work week is dying and here is why

So many of us gen-z and millennials will be the last generation to own their own home (not an apartment) if they are lucky. And with inflation and high stress and anxiety in work environments, we are beginning to value our time more than the money we make. Because realistically money is becoming less and less valuable. Retirement is no longer a sure thing and owning your own home or even being able to pay off your mortgage and keep your lifestyle is very unrealistic for an average two-person income household of $120k. So why work, work, work, retire and dye. When we can live a little more?

The average household income where I live is $120,000 a year. That's two people working full time 9-5 Monday to Friday. The average house price is $1.3 million. Average rent prices are $33,000 a year. The average electric bill is $2,300 a year. Internet $720 a year. The average travel costs to work is $5,200 a year. The average food budget for a family is around $10,900 a year. This is not including leisure activities, clothing, emergency savings or entertainment, let's add this up

$120,000
-$33,000
-$2,300
-$720
-$5,200
-$10,900
= $67,880

If we are generous and you never subscribe to Netflix, or have a cellphone bill, or pay your WOF, car Registration or insurance. Or buy any equipment or clothes or things for a hobby or education. Then two people without a life can have a down payment on a house in just under 20 years. Then after that down payment, you can have a mortgage for the next 30 years of your life. Making yourself debt-free at the age of 70. I hope your healthy and ready to live your life at 70 now without savings because you put it all into the mortgage.

To me, that lifestyle of trying to own your own home and save and work your butt off seems achievable back in the day when inflation wasn't so bad. But now with inflation so high and the working wage not increasing along with it, I can't see the point. The $1 had the buying power of $14.50 in the 1980s, that is how bad inflation is. Your dollar back in the '80s could buy something worth $14 today. That is insane to me.

So every year you work and don't get a pay rise. You are effectively working for less money because of inflation. Why the fuck would anyone want to stay doing their 40/50 hour work week with that knowledge. Your time is literally worth so much more to you now than ever before in history.

Now you can see why so many people are valuing their time over the 'American dream' of owning your own house with a front lawn. Or why someone would choose to earn less and have more free time when they are young and alive. It's just not achievable anymore owning your own home. Or worth the best years of our lives working a 40/50 hour workweek. And if we are being truly honest, most household earns only $80-90k a year with two full-time workers. A 40 hour work week on minimum wage is only $41,000 a year where I live.

Fuck that, when I can go for a walk, read a book, enjoy my life now. Because the truth is when you die, you don't take anything with you. That home you spent 50 years of your life saving for and paying off, only leaves you with 20/30 years tops of freedom, that cost you a whole lot of sacrifice. I never see myself owning a home. All I see is me living life to its fullest without debt, without obligation, with true freedom. Because a house is just some walls and a bit of dirt, and I can walk on dirt anytime I please. And a job is just that a job, it doesn't define who I am. My actions do that for me. And with what the dollar is worth now, my time on this earth is so much more valuable.