why are americans so obsessed with working/making money?

[lonelybyakon]

When your country is the first to fly an airplane, then 66 years later lands on the moon, its hard not to be driven. This isn't a USA is the best country post, just saying that when you grow up hearing about the Americans before you its hard, for me at least, to be happy being a line cook, a mid level exec, bartender...etc. I don't look down on those jobs, but I would not be happy with them forever either.

Look around your house/apartment, most of the things in it that were not there 200 years ago were invented by Americans. The lightbulb, telephone, PC, Cell phone, Microwave, the Internet, Email, anything with a Laser or LED, GPS, even Social Media. When you are surrounded by this it seeps into you like osmosis and makes many of us keep the gas pedal down all the time.

I am guilty of this and worked myself stupid building a company in my twenties, but I wasn't driven by money, I was driven by success, by building something. I hope that helps describe the reason on the outside I am what you describe in your thread.

[RCAK]

When your country is the first to fly an airplane, then 66 years later lands on the moon, its hard not to be driven. This isn't a USA is the best country post, just saying that when you grow up hearing about the Americans before you its hard, for me at least, to be happy being a line cook, a mid level exec, bartender...etc. I don't look down on those jobs, but I would not be happy with them forever either.

Look around your house/apartment, most of the things in it that were not there 200 years ago were invented by Americans. The lightbulb, telephone, PC, Cell phone, Microwave, the Internet, Email, anything with a Laser or LED, GPS, even Social Media. When you are surrounded by this it seeps into you like osmosis and makes many of us keep the gas pedal down all the time.

I am guilty of this and worked myself stupid building a company in my twenties, but I wasn't driven by money, I was driven by success, by building something. I hope that helps describe the reason on the outside I am what you describe in your thread.

[usera]

Aware me, no hate I was under the impression that the above things were invented by Americans.

[Slugrunner79]

I don't give a phuck about houses or cars or dick waving. I just wanna make enough money to not worry about money, and have some on the side to pursue hobbies/travel occasionally.

[cromofo]

Aware me, no hate I was under the impression that the above things were invented by Americans.

age: 38


americans live to work
we work to live

[kratosbrah]

Because living in America is stressful as a mother****er unless you have a lot of money. Healthcare, college, exorbitant prices for homes, working for companies which are always looking for a way to outsource your job/replace you with cheaper labor so on and so forth. It's all expensive as ****ing hell, most Americans are one accident away from having an empty bank account. We're like frantic hamsters on a wheel

[OliverHeldens]

seems like life is really to be lived in your 20s

seems like 30+ is just a dick waving contest on who has the bigger house/car and hotter trophy wife who would never have looked at them 10 years earlier

no wonder people go dead by 30 crew route

I'm thinking the right move nowadays is to live life to the fullest until 40, then commit suicide(or move somewhere and live a simple life on a beach).

[TacticalTaco]

BRB bought 5 bedroom house totally remodeled inside and out for under 70k w/ 1 acre of land.

Mad?

[atrueboss]

Because that's why America is #1 now embrace our culture or we'll drop bombs on you

[OliverHeldens]

Because living in America is stressful as a mother****er unless you have a lot of money. Healthcare, college, exorbitant prices for homes, working for companies which are always looking for a way to outsource your job/replace you with cheaper labor so on and so forth. It's all expensive as ****ing hell, most Americans are one accident away from having an empty bank account. We're like frantic hamsters on a wheel

True. Many jobs in the U.S. are like standing on the edge of a cliff in a wind storm.

[DaveSlays]

Keeping up with the jones' son. Personally I love it. Brb all the dope Stuff was invented here. Nice computer, phone, car, we like stuff

[BostonRockets]

Because society has brainwashed people into reducing their lives to that of sedentary office jockeys who occasionally have fun on the two day weekend/two week vacation period where they are "allowed" to by the man. 50/52 weeks spent doing the same sh!t and living in anticipation of a "better future" whether it be the end of the work day, the weekend, the vacation, or retirement. Life and enjoyment are thrown away in favour of a form that is useful to commercial society.

Brb people work minimum wage jobs yet are more concerned about the clothes they wear and the car they drive than the character, virtue and knowledge they embody and the fun they could have. There's that classic saying that "people aren't living" but rather they are "merely existing".

It's ironic how the very thing that was supposed to free us (work), is what has enslaved and demoralized most of us at the same time.

[dannyg1217]

It just part of American culture and work ethics, most are in the same boat as in 40/week is good work amount. Then you have companies that will let people who think they are heros work an extra 20-40 more. Jokes on them because the tax man rapes you at that point.
Not sure about others but I always learned money=/=happiness but personal relationships make a man rich, whether they be friends and family of sig other. Not as fun to spend money all alone

[iZZmatic]

Because we don't live in a socialist society.

[kratosbrah]

Because we don't live in a socialist society.

Except for corporations

socialism for them all day of course, or else you hate capitalism

kek

[lulzorz]

seems like you all will literally sacrifice everything to work alot (60-80/week)

why exatly? you want a slightly bigger house and drive in around in a bwm like a bigshot

is it really worth it? sacrificing your happiness so you can drive a bwm and having a 5 bedroom house instead of 3?

its something i will never understand

different culture hippie

[Callmechristian]

seems like you all will literally sacrifice everything to work alot (60-80/week)

why exatly? you want a slightly bigger house and drive in around in a bwm like a bigshot

is it really worth it? sacrificing your happiness so you can drive a bwm and having a 5 bedroom house instead of 3?

its something i will never understand

It's expensive out here mane

[Ted Nugent]

because happiness is a boat and fat stacks in the bank

srs

minimalist hippes get off on living in a hut burning incense, i love materialism

[SynapticCleft]

Because I get paid to misc. srs

Im at my computer miscing half the time at work.

Besides being broke is boring as phuck.

[buildingbrah]

It's a tough one OP...if you've been driven as a kid, you'll fit right in I reckon. Not saying that 95 % of your peers aren't some of the laziest sons of bitches you'll ever meet, but in 'merica, if you work hard, you really can get to the top. Unfortunately that's not necessarily true of other countries, where to make it to the top you've gotta cheat your way up there (thinking 3rd world here). Americans at the top also cheat, I just think in lesser numbers or they just rig the game and make it possible for others to follow.

[IronRooster2]

As George Carlin once noted, the poor exist "only to scare the chit out of everybody else." We treat our poor like dog**** here; in Florida you can murder a man in public if you claim that he was "scary", but you get arrested and thrown in jail for feeding the homeless.

Being better than everyone else is deeply rooted in our zeitgeist. And how can you prove you're better than someone than with some trivial number on a spreadsheet somewhere that doesn't really mean much?

<- Is impressed far more by science than anything else.

[STAYDENCH]

Capitalist indoctrination

[5htp]

Aware me, no hate I was under the impression that the above things were invented by Americans.

The power of nationalism, ladies and gentlemen.

[hottamale33]

because happiness is a boat and fat stacks in the bank

srs

minimalist hippes get off on living in a hut burning incense, i love materialism

lol

[EnamorFit]

We basically put in a position where if you aren't working like crazy you phucked

Example

My Kid needs money for tuition even though he has a partial scholarship. Brb 3k every 6 months

Paid that off n think everything is going well? nope, car head gasket blew, 1k repair.

Torn lateral Acl playing ball with friends, insurance company doesn't cover this type of repair? Brb 5k hospital bill

And it just continues......

[TheJimmyRustler]

Agreed, OP. I find it strange how there seem to be a lot of Americans who are actually proud of working 50+ hours weekly and look down on others who don't.

It's the most bizarre badge of pride in existence.

Brb proud that I spend nearly half of my entire day working
Brb proud that I see my family and friends even less than people who work normal hours

Fcking blows my mind that people can take a happy kind of pride in that, as opposed to pride earned through gritting your teeth and grinding it out because you have to.

[MyDue]

"the money is the motive" - lil wayne, 2000 in something

2000 in something...











2000 IN something.....

[sayso]

it's all about the gene pool brah


mobile: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_Icu7fn_XA


mobile:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVAKghnzxzM

cliffs:

Americans think life can be improved on (ambition)
Everyone's ancestors (with the exception for native americans and slaves) looked around, said life is not good enough, and made a dangerous voyage to a strange land to try and improve their life through hard work

[zdream]

Agreed, OP. I find it strange how there seem to be a lot of Americans who are actually proud of working 50+ hours weekly and look down on others who don't.

It's the most bizarre badge of pride in existence.

Brb proud that I spend nearly half of my entire day working
Brb proud that I see my family and friends even less than people who work normal hours

Fcking blows my mind that people can take a happy kind of pride in that, as opposed to pride earned through gritting your teeth and grinding it out because you have to.

the corporations have got all the ameribrahs right where they want them srs

[kratosbrah]

This is what hard work in America gets you -

http://www.reddit.com/r/tifu/comment...royed_my_life/

Today I ****ed up. Actually, This year I ****ed up. Not even in the wildest imagination could I have imagined where I would end up. It started with the perfect job. I lead position, a big salary, they moved me and my family across the nation and got us set up in the best schools. I became nationally recognized in my field, I was a go-getter and it was all starting to pay off for me. I was thankful for the opportunity and I thought I had finally made it. This was the American dream.

It ended up with me in a coma.

I don't remember the month before the coma or the month afterwards, I suppose I should be thankful for that. Being on a ventilator really screws up your memory. I know I was working more than 240 hours a month for my job, looking at my schedule later, and that didn't count the off the clock time. The last picture I sent from my cell phone was to a friend of my lunch the previous day: two Monster energy drinks and a salad. It was taken at my desk surrounded by paperwork. God I was a ****ing cliche.

On my eighth day straight of working a 12 hour shift, I had a sleep deprivation induced seizure. That is what the official neurology note says. I have no history of seizures, I didn't have any significant medical problems. What i have been told is I hit the tile floor so hard I split my head open, but the sound of the crash at least got someone's attention. I was without oxygen and blood pressure for a significant amount of time, according to the medical records. I seized for five hours, despite all the medications they gave me, and eventually was put in a medically induced coma. Later that day I had my heart attack and went to the cardiac cath lab. Then my kidneys failed.
Before you dismiss this by thinking I'm old, I'm only 37. I graduated top of my class from graduate school. I run marathons and squat 210 pounds at the gym. And I gave everything to the job. Weekends. Nights. Time with my kids. Time with my family. I wanted to be top of my game and Be debt free and I wanted to make a name for myself. I did everything that was asked of me. I gave that job everything I had. Those ****ers didn't even send me flowers.
Now I have a traumatic brain injury. I have severe post concussive syndrome. I take anti seizure medicine, I have chronic headaches, I have a pill box that rivals most 80 year olds. I had to send my kids away to live with my mom because I couldn't take care of them by myself. Why was I by myself: because my boyfriend left me. He couldn't handle that I went from being the bread winner and beautiful woman at his side, to trying to live off disability and having a Frankenstein scar up my forehead.

I ****ed up: I have 218,000 in student loans and I don't know if I can stay working in my chosen field. I ****ed up: the mind I spent my twenties developing, struggles with simple tasks and remembering words. I ****ed up: the hot body I spent developing in my thirties aches in countless ways and I'm afraid to go running by myself in case I seize again. I ****ed up: I chose the younger guy who didn't hesitate to walk away when I was no longer his sexy sugar mama.
But I ****ed up in so many ways before this happened. I ****ed up by prioritizing my job, my work, over everything else. I had the voice in the back of my head telling me to take a break. Telling me that I was on the wrong path. I wasn't happy and I thought I could buy that happiness and it would make up for all the late nights. I ****ed up by not spending time with my kids because I always thought they would be there waiting for me. I put off my entire life because I thought after I became the boss, made the money, married the hot guy, bought the big house and became everything I wanted to be that I would just ride off in to the sunset. I ****ed up because I bought The American Dream on credit and now I can't afford the bill. I ****ed up because I thought I would have more time to be the person I wanted be and now I'm so damaged it may never happen for me. Don't be like me. Don't be a **** up. Don't give it all to a dream job or a career. Don't think that you have more time. Don't **** up your family and your friends loving something that doesn't love you back. Just don't. Because between you and me, there were a lot of beds in my ICU, just waiting for someone else to **** up.

lmao, brb give your life to your career only to lose everything and then not even get a visit from your co-workers when your ass is in a hospital bed