Do we live to work or work to live?
That was a question that I remember hearing on a TV ad when I was younger. Back then, I didn't hesitate in saying the latter, but nowadays I can see the other argument. Especially with the cost of living constantly going up and out of reach for most people. A future free of debt just isn't a logical dream for the large majority of people anymore.
Think about it. We grow up with the false idea that our parents have all of the money in the world. The concept of money means absolutely nothing to children but they soon learn. As these once naive kids reach their mid-teens they are pretty much required to get a job. Their wants far exceed the limits of their parents' wallets now and the only way they are going to get anything is to pay for it themselves. Thus, they are thrown into the working world and quickly learn that they can no longer be frivolous with their money.
Part-time jobs make up the majority of the next 6-8 years depending on the type of degree they study at Uni, if any. And by this time the adolescent will have outgrown the family home and ventured on into the flat world of surviving on barely nothing because of the demands of work, uni and a social life. It is a given that quite a few students do get a bit hasty when it comes to spending their money but the general mentality is that 'you only live once'.
By this point in ones life, there is no real foreseeable end to the working life, unless a major win in lotto is involved. There doesn't seem to be another alternative to working. There's the unemployment benefit, but this has its restrictions and is not all that appealing to most people who want more for themselves. It appears that working is embedded somewhere deep in the psyche of human beings. Heck, all animals work! And they don't have the alternative of the alternative of the benefit. For them it's work, or die.
Any way we look at it, working is inevitable. Working is what got us here to the 21st century, why should that basis stop being relevant now. True, working comes with the benefit of money which in turn allows us to buy pretty and fulfilling items, but without it, we would not have the opportunity to buy these things anyway.
It's an endless cycle really. Both sides of the argument are justified all the same. To tell the truth, I think the ad I remember watching was one of those 'new-age' ones where they wanted to get people thinking about their life, but I can't remember what it was about exactly.
It's hard to ignore that little thought in the back of our head that makes us think, 'well maybe we are just working machines, with money used as an incentive. I prefer to think that we work to live though. It seems more logical when one initially thinks about it.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Youth Drinking
It seems we live in a drinking culture. The legal age for buying alcohol is constantly at the forefront of many political debates and the casualties always headline in the media. Yet, it is quite obvious that binge drinking, drink driving and the like are becoming more and more accepted in the youth society of today.
Do not get me wrong, I enjoy drinking from time to time, but the culture is enveloping and consuming. It’s hard to escape it. Finding someone who doesn’t drink nowadays is a tough task, bar the group of people whose religion forbids them to consume alcohol. Even when watching TV, we are put through endless amounts of advertisements about how we need to stop this downwards spiral and become sensible citizens by electing a sober driver or opting for a taxi instead, for example.
These ads not only tell us the obvious, that people aren’t being sensible drinkers, but they tell us that the problem is escalating out of control. There are too many families that have had to deal with the untimely loss of someone as a result, directly or indirectly of alcohol. And most of them are young males, who have a mentality that they are invincible.
I hate to succumb to accepting that stereotype but it seems that is the case. These guys go out drinking; sometimes up to four nights a week and then they expect to be a respected member of society. No employer is going to want a young man, or woman for that matter, who enjoys too much alcohol. Dependability is a key quality and turning up to work hung-over is not an attractive one.
It is becoming more apparent that ‘Generation Y’ is taking much longer to grow up and mature than that of their parents and grandparents. They worry about us, and rightfully so. It is us who will soon be leading the country and looking after the economy and infrastructure that holds New Zealand together. Why are we holding this inevitable task off? Drinking may not be the only reason for this, but it certainly is a large, contributing factor.
This drinking culture is of course, not a healthy one. And unfortunately, future generations are going to be paying for the long-term ramifications. Birth rates in Western civilisations are declining. In New Zealand it is estimated that alcohol related conditions account for 3.1% of all male deaths and 1.41% of all female deaths, according to the Ministry of Health. The Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand recommends that in the space of a week men should drink no more than 21 standard drinks and women shouldn’t drink above 14 standard drinks, just to be safe.
Another point that should be raised is how are supposedly poor students paying for all of their alcohol? Jobs are more often than not required and that means turning up and doing the job in order to get paid. Then there is also the likely situation that these students are flatting or living in a Halls of Residence. These living situations cost quite a bit of money and with the average part-time job, it doesn’t leave much of a disposable income. Does that mean that the last scrap of money that these students have left is spent on alcohol? There are much more important things to be spending ones money on than alcohol. Why is there a general mentality that says there is not?
The accessibility to alcohol is very easy. I do not wish to have drinking banned, nor do I wish to see its consumption lawfully restricted. It should be treated with respect and not taken so lightly. It is damaging and potentially fatal, and we need to acknowledge this and tone down the excessive and unnecessary drinking. Simply put, what is really so appealing about getting completely smashed, doing something stupid that you can’t remember in the morning, when you wake up with a pounding headache and spew all over your clothes and absolutely no bearing on where on earth you just spent the last night? Even experiencing one of the above consequences is embarrassing enough.
So let’s do something crazy and limit our drinking. Let’s freak out our parents and other elders and treat life seriously sometimes. Let’s make unmemorable nights and disgusting hangovers be a thing of the past. Let’s grow up gracefully like we ought to.
http://www.alac.org.nz/Home.aspx
http://www.ahw.co.nz/
Do not get me wrong, I enjoy drinking from time to time, but the culture is enveloping and consuming. It’s hard to escape it. Finding someone who doesn’t drink nowadays is a tough task, bar the group of people whose religion forbids them to consume alcohol. Even when watching TV, we are put through endless amounts of advertisements about how we need to stop this downwards spiral and become sensible citizens by electing a sober driver or opting for a taxi instead, for example.
These ads not only tell us the obvious, that people aren’t being sensible drinkers, but they tell us that the problem is escalating out of control. There are too many families that have had to deal with the untimely loss of someone as a result, directly or indirectly of alcohol. And most of them are young males, who have a mentality that they are invincible.
I hate to succumb to accepting that stereotype but it seems that is the case. These guys go out drinking; sometimes up to four nights a week and then they expect to be a respected member of society. No employer is going to want a young man, or woman for that matter, who enjoys too much alcohol. Dependability is a key quality and turning up to work hung-over is not an attractive one.
It is becoming more apparent that ‘Generation Y’ is taking much longer to grow up and mature than that of their parents and grandparents. They worry about us, and rightfully so. It is us who will soon be leading the country and looking after the economy and infrastructure that holds New Zealand together. Why are we holding this inevitable task off? Drinking may not be the only reason for this, but it certainly is a large, contributing factor.
This drinking culture is of course, not a healthy one. And unfortunately, future generations are going to be paying for the long-term ramifications. Birth rates in Western civilisations are declining. In New Zealand it is estimated that alcohol related conditions account for 3.1% of all male deaths and 1.41% of all female deaths, according to the Ministry of Health. The Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand recommends that in the space of a week men should drink no more than 21 standard drinks and women shouldn’t drink above 14 standard drinks, just to be safe.
Another point that should be raised is how are supposedly poor students paying for all of their alcohol? Jobs are more often than not required and that means turning up and doing the job in order to get paid. Then there is also the likely situation that these students are flatting or living in a Halls of Residence. These living situations cost quite a bit of money and with the average part-time job, it doesn’t leave much of a disposable income. Does that mean that the last scrap of money that these students have left is spent on alcohol? There are much more important things to be spending ones money on than alcohol. Why is there a general mentality that says there is not?
The accessibility to alcohol is very easy. I do not wish to have drinking banned, nor do I wish to see its consumption lawfully restricted. It should be treated with respect and not taken so lightly. It is damaging and potentially fatal, and we need to acknowledge this and tone down the excessive and unnecessary drinking. Simply put, what is really so appealing about getting completely smashed, doing something stupid that you can’t remember in the morning, when you wake up with a pounding headache and spew all over your clothes and absolutely no bearing on where on earth you just spent the last night? Even experiencing one of the above consequences is embarrassing enough.
So let’s do something crazy and limit our drinking. Let’s freak out our parents and other elders and treat life seriously sometimes. Let’s make unmemorable nights and disgusting hangovers be a thing of the past. Let’s grow up gracefully like we ought to.
http://www.alac.org.nz/Home.aspx
http://www.ahw.co.nz/
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