American Workaholics

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The effects on individuals has thus far revealed only part of the whole picture. When focus is shifted to workers with family situations, reports are revealing that time constraints are also connected to the shared working time between parents in households, with dual-earner based households and single parents meeting intensified challenges. Among these parents, women are even today continuing to take on the biggest share of family based responsibility and caretaking. This is thus making women workers, or single fathers, feel even more pressure than their workforce counterparts who have no children. The separation between workers who have no children and mothers or fathers with caretaking responsibilities has led to yet another growing divide that demands a change in policy that will address the specific conditions of workers and their families. When the U.S. is compared to the conditions of other workers in other countries the numbers come as quite a shock. According to the magazine Psychology Today, “The United States—one of the richest countries in the world--ranks 28th among advanced nations in the category of work-life balance, 9th from the bottom” (Cummins 1). This stressful imbalance of home life with excessive work hours has left us in desperate need of more time and is becoming a strong identifier of American culture in the world. As Cummins explains, “We log long hours at work with the fear of losing our jobs through downsizing hanging over our heads. Then we fight rush hour traffic to get home in time to be super-parents, putting dinner on the table, helping our kids with their homework, and checking in with friends and family members we feel we have neglected because we are so overwhelmed” (Cummins 1). This well pa... ... middle of paper ... ...he Betrayal of The American Dream, other factors that have placed tension and added stress on the middle class are explained. As the federal government and other corporations have enacted policies that, “Benefit the few at the expense of the many … steadily dismantling the foundation of America’s middle class” (Barlett 5) almost all economic prosperity has seemingly become only attainable by the richest in our society. From using policies that force people to work until the age of seventy before being able to access retirement benefits, to Washington and Wall street having slowly replaced high paying jobs with minimum wage ones that force more and more people to work under contracts that lower wages, the governments harsh treatment of the middle class has only aided in this increase in economic stress and it will continue to do so unless we take a stand (Barlett 5).

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