Jun
27
You do not have to be employed
June 27, 2009 | Comments Off
In an age of around 10% unemployment, a question comes up to my mind: Why do we want to give the impression that everyone needs to be employed? It doesn’t even reflect current practice. Half of the people are completely happy with the idea of not working. And I do not even think it is healthy to be employed 100% of the time, even if it is for a 30 or 40 year window of time that most of us call “career”. In fact, most of us are never employed 100% of the time anyways: we have the nights and weekends in the middle – and as silly as that could sound at first, some careers do not have weekends and work extremely long shifts or work-weeks – like the merchant marine, oil rigs, active duty military, etc.
We have 306 million people in the US (almost 7 Billion in the world). The number of unemployed people is at 14.5 million (or 4.7% of the population), yet unemployment is 9.4%. It is easy to understand. Our Civilian labor force is 155 million (All members of the population aged 16 or over in the United States who are not in the military or institutions such as prisons or mental hospitals and who are either employed or are unemployed and actively seeking and available for work.) Where are the other 150 million? Students, stay-at-home parents, retirees, discouraged workers, or simply those who have decided not to be part of the workforce. Some of these people have decided to stay out of the workforce to create opportunities for themselves: students. Others have done so to enjoy life (be with their child or retire).
An involuntary window of time without a job could be an opportunity to pursue some of the things that you always wanted, but didn’t had the time. However, one thing many employees are afraid of is an involuntary window of time without a steady paycheck – to support a paycheck to paycheck life. A situation caused by the impression that everyone is expected to be fully employed during the 30 or 40 year window called career. Maybe if we destroy that notion, we start reducing frivolous expenses and increasing a savings rate that will help us support ourselves and our society in a fully funded way.
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