Selfishness, Greed and Capitalism

We are working ever longer hoursincome quintile (ibid.: 6). In the EU, men are more thantwice as likely to work long hours than women, and theself-employed are more than four times as likely to worklong hours than employees (European Foundation for theImprovement of Living and Working Conditions 2008: 1).Some high-fliers who work for large corporations inBritain have adopted American-style office hours as well asthe attitude that ‘lunch is for wimps’ (another quote fromthe movie Wall Street). Those who have well-paid jobs in theCity of London or work in opinion-forming occupationssuch as politics and journalism are likely to work muchlonger than average and it is their experience, rather thanthe lives of middle-income earners in middle England, thattends to be reflected in the national media. 2The implications of this new trend should not be overlooked.Historically, the poor have worked the longesthours as a matter of necessity. Today, it is the rich whotend to work longer and this, in part, explains why theyare rich. Complaints about working hours today are thereforefundamentally different to those of the past. It is onething to be concerned about millions of people having towork seventy-hour weeks in factories to put food on the2 Working hours figures do not include time spent commuting toand from work, which rose between 1972 and the mid 1990s but hassince fallen back to the level of the 1970s (Department for Transport2013: 1). Workers who have long commutes earn significantlymore, suggesting that they are compensated for longer journeyswith higher pay. In London, for example, those who have long commutesearned an average of £18.80 an hour in 2009 while those withshort commutes earned an average of £9.60 per hour (ONS 2011b: 4).83