Created by Jeenn Lee Hsieh
A contribution from Chile
>People work because they need money to live. In your opinion, what are other reasons that people work?
Working people are supposed to be largely happy people because having a job means more than being able to just make ends meet. Money is by far the most important motivational factor that people work. However, in a more positive context in real life, having a career may get rid of poverty and may as well spare people from two other evils: vice and boredom.
Doing something worth doing helps hold boredom at bay and enjoy deserved rest after work. People who do not actually work probably do not really appreciate rest, either. As an unnecessary evil, boredom is like the feeling that nothing is important and everything is a waste of time. Ironically, those who seek rest find boredom while those who seek work find rest. For that matter, one must choose in life between work and boredom. Since there is no excuse to be bored, one must work.
Vice happens to be an evil next door to boredom because of its apparent association with idleness. In fact, ever so often idleness is the beginning of plenty of vice. It can be seen that people who need money to live but refuse to work inevitably fall easy victims to such habits as heavy drinking, drug abuse, and what not. Once affected by dangerous vice, people are likely to get trouble with the law. The presence of vice, in many cases, is linked to the absence of work. Chances are that crime rates match jobless rates.
Boredom and vice along with poverty are certainly not welcome in a happy and healthy life. The advantages of being busy with a job should hence not be limited to economic gains. After all, what a better reason to work than simply the pursuit of happiness?