Swarthmore College Professor Barry Schwartz published an article on August 28, 2015 in the New York Times entitled, "Rethinking Work." The article starts by taking note of that a “survey last year found that almost 90 percent of workers were either “not engaged” with or “actively disengaged” from their jobs” (Schwartz, 1). So 9 out of 10 “workers spend half their waking lives doing things they don’t really want to do in places they don’t particularly want to be”(Schwartz, 1). In a scientific and logical text, the writer succeeds in making his point despite a few fallacies. However, the author manages to persuade me of her thesis.
While Schwartz makes no real attempt to give a far reaching answer to the subject of why we are so alienated from …show more content…
Schwartz believes that Smith was wrong. First of all, people want more from their work than money; they want challenging, engaging and, most importantly, meaningful work that makes a difference to others and makes us feel better about ourselves. In fact many people willingly accept less money for such work. Studies show that even workers in low-paying jobs do work without compensation in order to find more meaning on the …show more content…
This nevertheless uncovers something vital about the connection of money to work.
Of course people do deserve adequate compensation for their work, so things like raising the minimum wage represent social progress. But we should still try to make our jobs satisfying. We can do this by giving people more autonomy and the chance to learn on the job. As Schwartz puts it, “Work that is adequately compensated is an important social good. But so is work that is worth doing. Half of our waking lives are a terrible thing to waste.” We should therefore always seek as much purpose as possible from what we do in our lives.
Where does that leave us? Barry Schwartz succeeded in logically delivering her argument, and persuaded me to agree with her. To be fair, Schwartz doesn’t mention that many work harder for more money too. However, I do agree that working just to earn money is a waste of our time; there is much more to life than making profit: The key is to make sure as much as possible that you enjoy the long and difficult journey to
While Schwartz makes no real attempt to give a far reaching answer to the subject of why we are so alienated from …show more content…
Schwartz believes that Smith was wrong. First of all, people want more from their work than money; they want challenging, engaging and, most importantly, meaningful work that makes a difference to others and makes us feel better about ourselves. In fact many people willingly accept less money for such work. Studies show that even workers in low-paying jobs do work without compensation in order to find more meaning on the …show more content…
This nevertheless uncovers something vital about the connection of money to work.
Of course people do deserve adequate compensation for their work, so things like raising the minimum wage represent social progress. But we should still try to make our jobs satisfying. We can do this by giving people more autonomy and the chance to learn on the job. As Schwartz puts it, “Work that is adequately compensated is an important social good. But so is work that is worth doing. Half of our waking lives are a terrible thing to waste.” We should therefore always seek as much purpose as possible from what we do in our lives.
Where does that leave us? Barry Schwartz succeeded in logically delivering her argument, and persuaded me to agree with her. To be fair, Schwartz doesn’t mention that many work harder for more money too. However, I do agree that working just to earn money is a waste of our time; there is much more to life than making profit: The key is to make sure as much as possible that you enjoy the long and difficult journey to